HollerGirl is a female-forward music festival that focuses on healing from domestic violence.

We were honored to be a part of the new HollerGirl Music Festival last year!  

Our community supports survivors in such unique ways, and we want to share more about this exciting event. 

This year the festival will take place August 11 – 13 at Rockcastle Riverside Campground.  

The lineup includes Senora May, Bee Taylor, and so many other amazing female artists.

Find more information, purchase tickets, or become a vendor by visiting their website here and follow along with them on Facebook here. 

Founder Kristen McClure sat down with us to discuss the festival and how it came to be.  

The Inspiration 

HollerGirl came from the idea of my passion for local music, highlighting women who get overlooked, and bringing in domestic violence is very important to me. 

I fell in love with the whole idea of music festivals and how wonderful they can be. Then I started thinking about all the talented female musicians we have here locally and how little I actually saw them on the bills, especially as headliners. 

The idea of HollerGirl came to me in February last year and I executed the idea in August. 

Women need to be heard. The local musicians we have around here are incredible. 

I wanted to combine the idea of highlighting female musicians with raising awareness for domestic violence survivors. I am a domestic violence survivor myself and my grandmother was also a survivor. 

That’s how GreenHouse17 came to be involved. My other main passion is GreenHouse17. I want to raise awareness. 

Family Friendly 

The festival is family-friendly and there will be kids’ activities. 

It’s super important to me that my children, they’re 8 and 10, are surrounded by this sort of atmosphere where women are empowered. It’s important to me for this festival to encourage kids to be strong and understand their place on this earth and what it means to be a good person. 

And understand the impact of what domestic violence means. That they can heal. I want to inspire them with seeing women on the stage. I want little girls to look up there and go, I can do that, too. 

The Location 

The space is Rockcastle Riverside. The river’s right there. It’s in the heat of August so people can walk down to that little sandy beach and get into the river. People are kayaking and kids are playing in the shallow area. 

Workshops, Art Auction, Local Artisans 

We’re going to have workshops this year.  

Cecilia Blair Wright is playing the festival and is also going to be doing music therapy. We’ll have a community art piece with GreenHouse17 and a writing workshop with Amy Figgs. 

There’s also an art auction and local women artisans. 

Open Mic Sunday 

This is a safe space. The open mic is going to be about release, healing, and inspiration. I think it’s an important part of healing from trauma. 

I had so many people coming up to me after the event and saying how special it was to them. People told me, ‘I don’t tell anybody this, but this happened to me. I’m so glad that you’re saying something.’ 

If they want to get up there and scream, sing a song, read poetry, or just say something, do it.