The article compares the two festivals in Ljubljana dedicated to the promotion of engaged women artists, activists and researchers: the international festival of contemporary arts City of Women (Mesto žensk) and the international feminist and queer festival Red Dawns (Rdeče zore). I compare their struggles for public spaces, their positioning towards feminism and their method of hope, claiming that the latter gave the organizers the strength to insist despite their precarious working conditions and negative reactions from the general public. I briefly discuss festivals Lezbična četrt and Deuje babe from the same point of view. The article is based on my own experience, interviews with the organizers, introductory texts to festival editions, media reports and anthropological theories of festivals. I consider those theories which, much like the organizers of City of Women and Red Dawns, recognize the potentials of socializing in the festive atmosphere: the gradual formation of political identities and long-term social change.
