This post appears courtesy of New Market Wilm. View the original post here.
The Ladybugs were crawling on Market last week, as the city celebrated the eighth year of the nation’s largest female-fronted music festival. For many, it was a chance to dance in the streets and hear new, emerging artists from up and down the east coast. But for two ladies who appeared on stage at the festival this year, the Ladybug Music Festival meant even more.
Nikki Zell of Thrillchaser, after seeing an image of herself on stage:
“I remember just thinking about how lucky and grateful I was to be singing in that moment, because it was one of the most fun shows I’d ever played with my band. It’s all captured in that shot. You can see it on my face, just pure bliss and a huge amount of joy, being able to do what I love to do.”
“My band, Thrillchaser, released our debut album in 2018. I just stepped up as female lead singer late last year, and since then we have been in the studio working on a new full-length album. And it’s all thanks to Ladybug and Moonloop Photography.”
“The first time I played Ladybug, in 2015, Joe del Tufo happened to be the photographer, and he took the shot that ended up online on social media. One of the guys in the band, Robbie the bass player, happened to see it online. They were based out of Providence, Rhode Island at the time – and still are. He contacted me and said, ‘We’re looking for a female guitarist and we looked up your music after seeing the photo and we’d love for you to just come up here and jam see if you want to be in a band with us.’ Literally, it’s that photo that Joe took – if he never had taken it and put it online, I never would have met the band I’m in now.”
“OHHHHH, I FORGOT, I forgot about this! That first year, Jeremy from Gable Music Ventures had invited me to come play a show for Wilmo Wednesdays, and it was technically an audition to see if I could play Ladybug. At that show that night, I happened to meet the lady who would end up becoming one of my best friends. Alexandra March. We ended up playing Ladybug as a duo in 2017. That’s incredible. I just realized it as I’m talking to you. Ladybug brought me my best friend, and brought my band. So it was really cool to be able to come full circle and play Ladybug this year.”
Danielle Johnson of Hoochi Coochi:
“I definitely came the first day for the block party. I couldn’t miss it. It’s something that I look forward to every year, and now that I live so close, I could just walk down there. I caught Aubrey Haddard, who was amazing. I got a chance to play with her last year and she was SO good. Then I caught the Ladybugs of Soul, and they, of course, were phenomenal. Everybody out in the streets, having a good time. It was spectacular. I loved it.”
“We performed the second night, at The Queen on The Crown Stage upstairs. By the time we finished setting up, the whole place was just filled. I think two songs in, our stage manager came over and said, ‘Can you say on the mic for people to come in? Because there’s so many people at the door trying to get in and they can’t because it’s so crowded.’ We had a blast. It was absolutely phenomenal.”
“As a female singer, and travelling around, sometimes and very often we were the only females on a concert line up. So it could feel like there really weren’t a lot of other females in this original music game. And then I started doing the Ladybug festivals and there was women from all up and down the east coast and all these bands of original music rock music and all different kinds of genres.”
“This festival means a lot to so many people. I think it’s really cool not just for Wilmington, but just in general. Ladies are here and we’re going to do it and Wilmington is on the forefront. So I think that’s really cool.”