This week marks year number three for the Portland, Oregon music and arts festival, Siren Nation. Featuring music, film, crafts, panels and workshops, Siren Nation honors the women in Portland’s vital arts scene. I spoke with Siren Nation founder Natalia Kay about the joys and challenges of putting on a successful festival in these tough financial times.

CD: How did you come up with the idea for Siren Nation?

NK: It came out of conversations I had with a friend who I was producing events with. I was very inspired by Ladyfest and the Michigan Womyn’s Festival. Portland deserved and needed an event of that magnitude to honor the amazing array of talented women artists in the area. We knew we could put together a national-caliber festival just with local bands and thought it spoke volumes about the quality and quantity of great women artists in the area. We also figured that there would be an audience here, and hoped that people would travel to Portland to experience the magic of a women’s music festival. Additionally, we were continually disappointed to see that women were underrepresented in local and regional music festivals, so there clearly was a need to shine the spotlight on women.

CD: What is important in doing an event that speaks specifically to women?

NK: People often question the validity or need for having a space that focuses solely on the work of women. In some people’s minds women are hugely successful in the arts and having women-centered events is kind of antiquated. However, the music industry is hugely controlled by men and women are still incredibly underrepresented, not as musicians, but as the best-paid musicians with the best opportunities. I look at festival line-ups in Portland, the region and nationally and am constantly disappointed to see that women are not given equal air time in the larger venues. It is incredibly frustrating because women are not less talented than men but they are judged by a different standard. If they don’t look a certain way they are not considered marketable. Women are making great strides in the arts but there are still gross inequalities as far as gender goes, not just in music but visual arts, film, etc. We like having a space where women decide what is important (our board is 100% women) and women’s talent is front and center.

CD: How long in advance do you plan the festival?

NK: Siren Nation is a year-round job. We usually take a break after the festival and through the holidays, but our first fundraiser of the year is the second week of January. We have a calendar of annual events that we produce every other month from January through September and eighty percent of our budget comes from these events. We start planning various aspects of the festival itself in January.

CD: What are the biggest challenges of putting an event together like Siren Nation?

NK: We are struggling, as are most of our community and fellow arts organizations, to stay in the black. We’ve always run a pretty tight operation as the vast majority of our revenue comes from events we produce throughout the year, but we are an all-volunteer-run organization. There is any amazing wealth of talent and skills on our board but we’re constrained in our development and growth by lack of time, energy and funding. People who attend arts events do not understand the true cost of such events. Portland is so saturated with art and talent that people expect to (and can) go see a great show for five dollars. But it is not possible for an artist to survive off what they make at the door, never mind all the supporting personnel. What people are willing to pay is not enough to adequately compensate the artists, and finding money to subsidize ticket sales is really challenging.

CD: Is there a charity recipient?

NK: The first year we were enough in the black to make a nice donation to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls. Since then we have not been able to make cash donations, although we support local non-profits any way we can. We donate ad space in our program, offer space to table at our events and the opportunity to speak to our audiences. None of our organizers get paid a dime for all the hard work they do all year long. Ninety percent of the money goes to pay the performers what we feel is a fair wage for the work they are doing. So the money does not go to a charity per se but paying artists to share their best is a worthy cause.

CD: What do you do when you are not doing this?

NK: When Siren Nation started five years ago, I was working as a nanny. Then I started working in the trades and spent the past three and a half years working as a carpenter and painter. This fall I decided to go back to school and am now a full-time graduate student at PSU in their Masters of Public Administration program, focusing on non-profits. I also have a part-time job on campus as volunteer coordinator for the Queer Resource Center.

CD: This being the third year of the event, is there anything new?

NK: The biggest change is that we are downsizing to a smaller venue. We are thrilled to be partnering with the Someday Lounge. They have been hugely supportive and enthusiastic about hosting Siren Nation, and local music and arts in general. It will be a much more intimate space which I hope will contribute to a stronger sense of community during the performances. Another small change is that we’ve consolidated three art shows we did last year into one big art event with more than 50 local visual artists.

CD: What are you most looking forward to seeing or hearing?

NK: Picking what I am most excited about is extremely difficult because the festival is like my baby and I am incredibly proud and excited about each and every facet. If I had to pick, though, I am particularly excited about the film portion of the festival. It was not our intention to screen only documentaries, but that’s the way it worked out and each of the documentaries features a woman who is a pioneer in her own right [Ferron, Alix Olsen, Storm Large]. Serendipitously all the films form a program that is cohesive and very inspiring. I’m looking forward to the film Ahead of the Majority and learning more about Patsy Mink, the US Representative from Hawaii who was the first woman of color to serve in the House. She also authored Title IX.

CD: Tell me about the music you’ve got planned this year.

NK: I’m incredibly excited to have Emily Wells perform at this year’s festival. We tried to get her last year but it didn’t work out so I am especially thrilled that we were finally able to get her. She is an incredibly talented young woman who not only writes her own music and lyrics, but plays a vast array of instruments incredibly well. She’s quite the wunderkind. Y La Bamba plays beautiful and unusual music. Grey Anne is enchanting and lovely, a one-woman show with layers and layers of harmonies and clever lyrics. Sallie Ford is new to Portland and blew us away at the Dolly Parton Hoot Night. Her sound is quite retro and has a ton soul. We’re also super excited about Tender Forever, another one-woman band from K Records who recently relocated to Portland and has been working on her first new album since 2007 so we’re really excited to hear what she does before she heads off to tour in Europe.

Siren Nation runs November 5-8 in various Portland venues: Thursday night kickoff is at the Olympic Mills Building, Friday night film festival will be at Hollywood Theater and free workshops, panels and craft fair will be held on Sunday from 11-5 at McMenamin’s Kennedy school. Music performances on Friday and Saturday nights are at the Someday Lounge. For a full schedule and more details go to www.sirennation.com.