CLITfest is coming to a venue near you, and its women will be performing to be heard.

Now in its fourth year, the DIY festival will celebrate the women of Chicago’s punk scene in an event custom-fit for outsider voices. The “CLIT” in the fest, which stands for Combatting Latent Inequality Together, does much more than attract attention. The cause and the radical festival will unite bands and organizers from Chicago’s entire DIY community to advance women beyond their second-rate spot in a genre traditionally dominated by men. “In all of its music, punk has a huge leaning toward the masculine and women get cut out of that,” says Bria Servoss, a member of the CLITfest Chicago planning committee. “You automatically think of a boy with a mohawk – the girl is the girlfriend of that boy.”

CLITfest is a place for punk music’s women to step into the spotlight, alongside their male counterparts. “CLITfest was born out of wanting to play with other women,” says Condenada vocalist Mariam Bastani, who has played the last three CLITfests and is lined up for this year’s. “Back then, the availability was low. The first CLITfest was an anomaly that made us gravitate toward one another.”

The organizers of the first CLITfest, the Minneapolis’ Profance Existence Collective, created the sensational festival “in response to years of years going to shows and seeing only men perform and filling all the important roles,” says Dan Siskind, editor of Profane Existence Magazine, which is published by the collective. The 2004 and 2005 CLITfests both held in Minneapolis, were organized by the BREAST Brigade (BREAST for Belligerent Revolutions Enraged Against Sexist Tyranny), a committee that dispersed after failing to plan a CLITfest in 2006. When a Richmond, Va. community of punk women wanted to plan their own CLITfest in 2007, Siskind says the name and message of the festival were passed on. The August 2008 event will be Chicago’s addition to the movement.

This year’s daytime workshops will range from women’s self-defense to Chicago community issues, and even DIY care for music and sound equipment. Nighttime performances will run the gamut of local punk bands, including groups such as Condenada, Daylight Robbery, Barren and Bromance.

Festival organizers are still recruiting performers from the city’s vibrant pool of talent. In Chicago, a relatively large population of women participates in DIY punk, meaning the booking and producing of local shows, and there are women performers in all of the CLITfest bands. But often their role gets forgotten.

“Punk has a huge leaning toward the masculine and women get cut out of that,” says Bria Servoss, a member of the CLITfest Chicago planning committee. “You automatically think of a boy with a mohawk – the girl is the girlfriend of that boy,” she says.

Servoss, who as a soul singer comes to the punk scene from her own unique angle, sees the festival uniting musicians in a city otherwise often divided by race and geography. “(The organizing) is interesting because it’s pulling people from all areas of Chicago who play punk music together,” she says. “We have such a strong presence of Latina women that no one is really aware of; this is not a white girl fest.”

Organizers have noticed that women in the punk scene have the ability to unite across cultural and musical lines for this common cause. “These women are more willing to realize we’re all in the same boat,” Servoss says. “We say, ‘Yeah, you’re a tough chick! Yeah, me too!'” The CLITfest Chicago mission statement touts the festival’s “progressive views that actively combat sexism, racism, homophobia and discrimination of any kind,” and organizers attempt to keep the event as queer-friendly and woman-friendly as possible.

While the festival does emphasize women, organizers agree that CLITfest is not meant to exclude men. “This isn’t a bitch session about men,” Servoss says. “To be a feminist or to be open to queer ideas – you don’t have to be a woman to do that.” Men have been involved in CLITfest from its beginnings in the BREAST Brigade, and Chicago organizers do not intend to exclude them this year. Gilliland is the only woman in her band, Daylight Robbery. She says the men in her band have been very supportive, and they are excited to perform in CLITfest.

Even beyond including men in its sphere, CLITfest itself is not meant to separate women from the larger punk movement. “We have a really strong punk scene, and we believe there are a lot of women who are a part of that scene, not apart from it,” she says.

“Punk rock is seen as a marginal category, for young people,” Bastani says. “It’s important to realize there are women in music who are much older, without getting the wrong idea about image.” Bastani emphasizes that the image young girls perceive of rock being about sex appeal can be changed when they’re exposed to different types of music. CLITfest offers this opportunity for newcomers to gain an understanding of what punk is really about, especially for women.

“It’s about the music, first and foremost,” Bastani says. “Is the music good?”