Editor’s note: Hey! It’s been a minute. We’re excited to bring you this Yes All Witches tour review from our contributor, Kelly. Make sure to check out her vlog at the end!

It’s been roughly eight years since the last time I’d had a chance to go to a wizard rock concert, so the minute I found out that the Yes All Witches Tour was coming to Wisconsin on June 24, my friend and I started planning our roughly four-hour roadtrip to get to the Village Green in Ripon. Alyssa and I were both pretty into Tonks and the Aurors before we went to the show, and knew a few Tianna and the Cliffhangers songs, but had never heard anything from LosingLara.

When we got to Ripon, we were really excited to see how nice the venue the library had provided for the concert was: in the middle of town, outdoors, and gave off a summer concert vibe. We were also really excited about the Bertie Botts beans and fizzing candy that the library had on hand, in addition to a book raffle. It was definitely an A+ venue.

The show started out with Steph of Tonks and the Aurors doing a two-song set, which got the crowd excited for more music. As soon as Tianna took the stage, we started wondering what songs she was going to play, and her set did not disappoint. Unfortunately, halfway through Tianna’s set, the wind really started picking up and everyone started to get cold – at the end of the show it was about 55 degrees and we were wrapped in blankets in addition to our sweatshirts and long pants. Tianna toughed it out though, and played a great variety of songs off her 2015 album, “Picking Up Where You Left Off”.

When Steph came on to play “Aurors for the Win” and “Honorary Marauder”, the wind had gotten so bad that a lot of the audience had left, which was unfortunate, because the show just got better after that, but weather is gonna do what weather’s gonna do… What we did notice, however, was that Steph was completely unshaken and even more energetic the colder it got.

Lara’s set was a pleasant surprise, and I’m glad she came on the tour this year. Her song “I Said No” fit right in with the feminist theme of Yes All Witches, and all of her music had a combination of great songwriting and fresh lyrics that I hadn’t seen in wizard rock for a while. She is definitely one of those musicians that I hope sticks around within the community, because I believe that she has a lot more music to make.

At the end of the show, Steph came on for an encore set that closed out the show with “Yes All Witches!”. This was the best part of the show in my opinion, because everyone who was there at that point was so excited to be there and it really made for a strong closer.

To sum it up: the venue would’ve been one of the best wrock venues I’ve seen – had it not been 55 degrees. All three artists had sets that were diverse, yet tied together by feminist and queer lyrics that brought a clear message of what the show stood for. The merch was really great this time around (especially the Witch Gang t-shirts, the material was the softest ever AND THEY GLOW IN THE DARK!) and each artist had a solid variety of music for sale.

For those who missed the tour this time around, Steph announced she is doing some solo dates later on in the summer, so check out her Facebook page as she will be adding more dates soon!

I also did a vlog documenting our roadtrip, which is attached below: