Zoey Victoria has been a vital force in Chicago’s DIY underground since becoming infatuated with the scene in high school. Now 22, she’s managed artists such as Cold Beaches and Morinda and founded the Femifest Music and Art Festival, which would’ve had its sixth year in 2020. She’s also helped launch the DIY CHI Mutual Aid Fund, which collaborated with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers last month on a stellar livestreamed benefit at the Hideout that featured Gossip Wolf faves Tenci, Ariel Zetina, and Lala Lala. Last week Donnie Biggins, who founded booking and promotion company Harmonica Dunn in 2012, announced that he’s hired Victoria to help curate talent at Tonic Room in Lincoln Park. “She has immersed herself in live music and has become a fixture in both its underground scene and in organizing for a more equitable and liberating industry and world,” Biggins wrote in a statement. At Tonic Room, which Biggins bought in 2016, the two of them will work together to “create a venue environment that uplifts marginalized voices and truly puts the artist first.”
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