By Sara Atencio-Gonzales, The Paper. — For two decades, WIMINFEST offered Albuquerque’s lesbian community a place to gather, celebrate and feel safe being fully themselves. Now, after a 20-year absence, organizers are bringing that spirit back in a new form through QueerJoyFest, a one-night festival designed to celebrate the broader LGBTQIA2S+ community at a time when many queer and trans people feel increasingly under attack.
Set for May 30, QueerJoyFest is both a revival and a reimagining. Former WIMINFEST organizers Havens Levitt and Charlene Johnson say the festival was born out of a desire to reconnect community members during a politically difficult moment.
“Mostly it was in 2025 when we had a new administration go into national office and started hating on our community in a million different ways,” says Levitt. “And not just our community, but all the communities we care about: the immigrant community, trans community, queer community, unhoused people, I mean, you name it.”
Levitt explains that the idea began after attending a local performance that briefly recreated the sense of queer togetherness she remembered from WIMINFEST.
“I just looked around,” says Levitt. “I went to an event. An old lesbian performer came to Albuquerque, and so there was, like, a little bit of that sense at a South Broadway concert, and I just said to someone else that I knew there, ‘You know, we need to have more of this, we need to come together more.’”
That conversation eventually led several former WIMINFEST organizers to reunite and ask whether they could create something new for today’s queer community.
“We all got together and said, ‘You know, do we think we can do something else? Bring it back, but intentionally a new version, a different vision,’” says Levitt. “But the seed was from WIMINFEST.”
WIMINFEST originally ran from 1985 to 2005 and became a cornerstone of Albuquerque’s queer cultural scene. Levitt, who helped found the festival, says it provided a rare sense of safety and belonging during a time when many LGBTQ+ people did not feel accepted publicly.
“It was a transformative weekend where people felt so seen and safe in a way that, especially when we started in the ’80s, many of us didn’t feel like we could really feel safe anywhere if we were open about who we were,” says Levitt. “People would say, ‘I have to come here every year, it’s what gets me through the rest of the year.’”
Johnson joined the organization later, in the early 1990s, and remembers both the work and the joy that went into creating the festival “even if it was hard, to really find ways to make sure that we had diversity on the stage and that we were highlighting that,” says Johnson.
Part of what made WIMINFEST memorable was that it unfolded right in the middle of Downtown. “WIMINFEST in Albuquerque was always rooted in Downtown Albuquerque,” says Johnson. “We were doing this, and we were ourselves, but in the downtown of a city. That to me was something really unique about that type of festival.”
QueerJoyFest builds on that legacy while intentionally broadening its focus beyond the lesbian-centered identity of the original event. Organizers say the name change reflects an effort to create a more explicitly inclusive environment for queer people across identities and generations.
“We wanted to make sure that we were not exclusionary of gender,” says Johnson. “We really want to make sure that all members of our community feel invited, can see themselves in the name change, and see that it was a deliberate choice.”
Johnson adds that organizers especially wanted transgender and nonbinary attendees to feel welcomed. “We really want to make sure that those that identify as trans or nonbinary or other gender identifications really feel like they’re safe and can come to our event and feel safe,” says Johnson.
This year’s lineup reflects that broader vision. Featured performers include a musician, a singer-songwriter and a Navajo transgender comedian.
Johnson explains that organizers wanted a mix of returning favorites and artists new to Albuquerque audiences. “We did want to include some newer artists that had never been to Albuquerque, and then also some artists that have been like Margo Gomez, who is our comedian, and she’s been to Albuquerque and was in WIMINFEST many times,” says Johnson.
Levitt notes that rebuilding the festival after two decades came with challenges, especially because queer cultural networks have changed significantly since the original WIMINFEST years.
“When we were doing WIMINFEST, there was a much more tight-knit group of artists,” says Levitt. “When we started again 20 years later, first of all, our community is so much more diffuse – which is a kind of good news/bad news thing.”
Still, both organizers say the event is about more than entertainment. At its core, they see QueerJoyFest as an opportunity to reconnect people in person and remind them they are not alone.
“Queer joy is resistance,” says Levitt. “It’s our way to survive and take care of each other in times like this.”
Johnson echoes that sentiment, saying one of the most meaningful parts of organizing the festival has been reconnecting with old friends and collaborators. “Seeing each other is so important, and seeing each other in person is so important,” says Johnson. “We’ve had so many disruptions to our human connections.”
As QueerJoyFest prepares for its first year, organizers say they are trying not to look too far ahead. The future of the festival will depend partly on community turnout and financial sustainability. Still, they hope attendees leave feeling connected, supported, and energized.
“I just hope people feel a sense of connection,” says Levitt, “and like we all understand that we’re in this together, we’re going to take care of each other, love each other, laugh together, cry together and stand up for each other.”
QueerJoyFest takes place Saturday, May 30, at the KiMO Theatre (423 Central Ave NW) and will feature an evening of music and comedy followed by an afterparty and dance with DJ Bex at Expressions Old Town (303 Rio Grande Blvd NW). Organizers say the event will be ASL interpreted and open to the entire LGBTQIA2S+ community, allies included. For more information on QueerJoyFest, please visit queerjoyfest.org.
If you go…
QueerJoyFest
- Saturday, May 30, 7 p.m.
- KiMo Theatre (423 Central Ave NW)