'Not to be missed': Art, music festivals combine with Women's Week to fill Provincetown with entertainment

The autumn holiday weekend/week in Provincetown will bring together three big festivals that offer a mix of concerts, other live entertainment, art exhibitions, outdoor activities, receptions, parties, movies and more. If you're in town, check out what's happening for the Washashore Festival, ArtsProvincetown and the start of Women’s Week festivities.

Women’s Week

Women’s Week will hold its 38th annual event from Oct. 10-16, at places around Provincetown, with some early events starting Oct. 7. Organizers of the longstanding tradition, first founded in 1984,  hope to welcome close to 2,000 visitors this year, according to Lynette Molnar, the festival’s creative director, who says the “unique event” will draw women from all over the country.

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For many, she says, Women's Week is a “remarkable time” when women can come and just “be who they are,” within the “freedom and safety that is Provincetown.”

Outdoor activities will include sunset sails, whale watching, clambakes and dune tours. The entertainment scene will offer cocktail hours and teas, meet-and-greet events, author signings, film screenings, dance parties and more than two dozen music and comedy acts, featuring LGBTQ performers.

The week is really a series of “mini-festivals,” she says, with activities for everyone. The women also have something to say: Attendees are invited to participate in the Women's March Rally at noon at Provincetown Town Hall (260 Commercial St.), to coincide with national protests a month before Election Day, with signs available for pick-up at Womencrafts (376 Commercial St.).

Entertainment highlights throughout the festival will include comedian Robin Tyler, a former Provincetown Performer of the Year (nightly Oct. 12-15, Post Office Cabaret, 303 Commercial St.); singer Suede in concert (Oct. 13-15, Crown & Anchor, 247 Commercial St.); and musician Melissa Ferrick (Oct. 15, Art House, 214 Commercial St.).

Instead of a dance party to open the festival, says Molnar, there’s a new evening event: the “Cocktails and Campfire Songs” Welcome Party on Monday, Oct. 10, by the fire pit at the Brass Key (67 Bradford St.).

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At a Women’s Week Community Gathering (Tuesday, Oct. 11, Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, 236 Commercial St.), the week’s performers will gather together in a common setting to perform as well as share their personal coming-out stories.

The Provincetown Film Society will host screenings of 20 films or films-in-progress throughout the week at Waters Edge Cinema (237 Commercial St.), with conversations planned with numerous directors and producers. The lineup, which features storytelling about women and a focus on women musicians, includes the documentary “Clambake,” a look back at past years of Women’s Week celebrations.

For a complete schedule of events: womensweekprovincetown.com. For a complete schedule of films: https://www.provincetownfilm.org/.

Washashore Festival

The Washashore Festival on Friday through Sunday, Oct. 7-9, will mark the second year for Provincetown’s burgeoning “genre-bending queer music festival.” It will include performances by 22 different musical acts throughout the weekend at the Crown & Anchor, Provincetown Brewing Co. (141 Bradford St.) and the Red Room (258 Commercial St.).

According to Aaron Clayton, the festival’s executive director, “Provincetown is a main character” in the ambience of the holiday weekend. Visitors will get to experience “a spectacular moment in the fall season,” he says, as well as enjoy the “incredible queer talent” on display with “numerous musicians (and) a wide spectrum of queer talent in all of its forms and styles.”

The weekend will include such up-and-coming headliners as pop artist and singer/songwriter Jordy (Oct. 8) and Korean-American transgender musician Ellie Kim, aka SuperKnova (Oct. 9), both at the Crown & Anchor.

Righteous Babes Revue artists Gracie & Rachel, Holly Miranda and Jocelyn Mackenzie, who are all openers on singer/songwriter Ani Difranco’s fall tour, will perform together at the brewery (Oct. 8).

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Collaborative events with ArtProvincetown at the Crown & Anchor will include a Friday Opening Night Launch Party and Net Gala with red carpet, and an 11 p.m. after-party on Oct. 8, featuring DJ Mushroom Head + Provincetown After Dark. Experiencing Washashore and ArtProvincetown events combined on the same weekend gives visitors the chance to “experience art all day and music all night,” Clayton says.

A portion of event proceeds benefits the nonprofit Summer of Sass, which helps relocate LGBTQ adolescents ages 18-20 from less-welcoming communities to Provincetown, offering support and help with housing and jobs.

The Washashore Festival is a 21+ event with general admission three-day tickets priced from $135 to $190, with single-day general admission or single-venue passes available. For a complete schedule: www.washashorefestival.com or on Instagram, @washashorefest.

ArtProvincetown Festival

Organizers of the second annual ArtProvincetown Festival, which runs from Oct. 7-9, promise in an announcement that the event will include “three days of art exhibitions, receptions, parties hosted by special guests, a marketplace, live music and the Washashore festival.”

Local businesses, art organizations and a townful of galleries will welcome fall visitors and art lovers to one of the prime art centers in the country, with the town’s artist community opening the doors of galleries, studios, museums and workspaces throughout the weekend. Open Studios online (@artprovincetown) will display artists’ work on social media sites.

Location central on Saturday and Sunday will be the all-day Art Marketplace in the auditorium at Town Hall (260 Commercial St.), where artists will fill the space with easels and canvases to display and sell their works. Admission is free.

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Using a map available online, visitors can take a gallery stroll on Friday evening in and around town, with galleries open for a variety of special exhibitions and openings.

Anne Attalla, producer of the three-day fest, especially touts the “collaborative spirit” that’s visible among the many artists taking part in what she calls this “extravaganza of exhibitions.”

“This art colony showcase is not to be missed,” she says.

For art updates, a gallery map and information: www.ArtProvincetownFestival.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Provincetown entertainment: art and music festivals, Women's Week