We Make Noise Fest brings a lineup of diverse artists downtown

Women and nonbinary artists across genres in Greater Boston are gearing up to unleash their voices in the center of the city.

We Make Noise Fest — the second annual festival hosted by nonprofit We Make Noise Boston and in collaboration with Mass Now and the City of Boston — will take place in Downtown Crossing from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24. The event is free and open to everyone.

Roxbury-born rapper Oompa will headline the festival with other performances by Lisa Bello, Amanda Shea, Kühlname, Daniela Gómez, Cakeswagg, Analise, Kim Moberg, dogtailcorners and ladybugg.

We Make Noise Boston highlights diverse artists and provides opportunities for eager creatives to learn, offering music workshops. The project began as Beats by Girlz in April 2022, but the organization changed their name to better represent all of the people involved in their music making.

The nonprofit’s festival is an avenue for overlooked artists to have their chance in the spotlight.

“Boston has an incredible music scene, but it’s often not uplifted,” said nonprofit director Naomi Westwater. “A lot of these women, gender expansive people and people of color are not given the resources to take up space, so this festival is for them to take up space and to be celebrated and to make a lot of noise and have a lot of fun in the heart of Boston.”

Westwater is a folk-rock singer-songwriter and will also be taking the stage. In searching for other artists to perform, they chose creatives they would have wanted to see on stage as a young queer, Black-multiracial child.

“I'm really excited about the wide variation of people who are going to be on stage,” they said, “and I think it so beautifully represents the city and how really diverse the city is.”

About 500 people attended the debut festival last year, said Westwater, and they hope for thousands to pass through this time.

Roxbury rapper Cakeswagg will perform the same set she put on at Boston Calling in May, including four songs from her sophomore album “Michelin Star” which drops Friday, Aug. 23.

“‘Michelin Star’ is an elevated version of who I am as an artist,” said Cakeswagg. She added that she explored her artist identity in her other work, and this album feels like a “more mature” and clearer expression of herself.

Cakeswagg will perform the entire album at a release show at Sonia in Cambridge on Aug. 30.

Along with music, the festival will feature local vendors with Boston Women’s Market and a “Period Art Pop-Up Show” by Mass Now. The pop-up tours around Greater Boston and ruminates on the theme “the personal is political.”

“The goal of the Period Art Pop Ups is taking menstruation out of the closet and spreading awareness around menstrual equity,” according to Mass Now’s website.

We Make Noise Boston plans to host a songwriting and production camp in the fall from Oct. 25-27 like they did in 2022 to help less experienced artists learn how to develop their own music.

“The future is here,” said Westwater. “I really want Boston to be known as an incredible art and music city, because I think it is an incredible art and music city, and I want it to be at the same level as Nashville, as New York, LA, Atlanta, so this is my small contribution to doing that.”