Though it may be named after one of the founding fathers of electronic music, Moogfest has always held a progressive spirit that embodied the forward-thinking nature of Bob Moog himself. And today, the electronic and alternative music festival unveiled the first phase of its lineup, led entirely by female, non-binary, and transgender artists.

The reveal also came with the announcement of a keynote presentation/conversation with noted privacy rights and political transparency activist Chelsea Manning on The Future of Creativity, which will be the 6th edition of Moogfest’s keynote that covered new perspectives on technology, politics, and creativity. Past Moogfest keynote speakers include: transhumanist Dr. Martine Rothblatt, VR pioneer Jaron Lanier, Dr. Kate Shaw from the CERN Large Hadron Collider, Harvard’s Dr. Joe Davis, and philosopher Nick Bostrum.

Today’s announcement is celebrated by “Always On,” a 50-hour livestream between today at 12:00 PM EST to 2:00 PM EST on Dec. 8, with continuous performances from female, transgender, and non-binary artists. Presented in partnership with Tom Tom Magazine, the livestream highlights the abundance of female, transgender, and non-binary artists actively creating and performing electronic music and beats around the world – from a home-studio in South Africa, to the Moog Factory in North Carolina.

The “Always On” celebration will continue at the festival in May, with some of the artists participating in the livestream also participating at the festival including Goddess of “electronic psychedelic soul” Sassy Black, Discwoman’s middle eastern dance experimentalist DJ Haram, percussive activist Madame Gandhi, avant pop sound sculptor Katie Gately, multi-instrumentalist provocateur Stud1nt, and former Au Revoir Simone hypnotic synth master Annie Hart. Many of these performances will be part of the free and open-to-the-public programming throughout the festival weekend.

Along with the keynote speaker, the festival has revealed quite the impressive lineup, with artists who will also be participating in the festival’s nighttime program. Some of these artists include the LCD Soundsystem synth experimentalist Gavin Rayna Russom, gender ambiguous theremin virtuoso Armen Ra, Kuwaiti conceptual artist Fatima Al Qadiri, Afrofuturist DJ Maliibu Miitch, hyperkinetic pop maven SOPHIE, and the revered Japanese multi-instrumentalist Midori Takada. Building on the experimental format of previous years, these artists will participate in Future Sound performances by night complemented by the same artists leading Future Thought workshops, and conversations by day.

Check out the full lineup below in the festival flyer.

UPDATE (3/28): Moogfest has added several artists to its 2018 lineup. These performers include Torres, Kelela, Psychic TV, Spank Rock, Shabazz Palaces, Little Boots, KRS-One, Jon Hopkins, Mouse on Mars and more. In keeping with the well-intentioned but somewhat ham-fisted efforts towards a more gender-equal lineup, Moogfest has announced several of the most exciting female performers in alternative music. Torres released her incredible leap forward Three Futures in 2016 while Kelela was finally able to drop her debut LP, which garnered deservedly rave reviews. Unsurprisingly, both albums ended up with the High Fidelity designation from this site.

The festival also released the following video in connection with the Phase 2 lineup announcement.