‘Girls support girls’ in Poland's alternative music scene: Lucciola Ladies Rock Camp and Girls and Queers to the Front as gendered artistic communities and support networks

Female alternative musicians are an interesting group both from the point of view of the sociology of work and art. The nature of their work and the structure of time devoted to it place them at the intersection of professional musical career and amateur music-making, as the so-called ‘ordinary’ musicians. Communities that teach girls and women to play instruments and encourage the formation of bands and live performances, such as Lucciola Ladies Rock Camp and Girls and Queers to the Front analysed in this article, play specific roles in the professional socialisation of these semi-professional or non-professional musicians. In this article, I examine the criteria for entry and exit to these communities, the bonds formed while these organisations operate, and the nature of the bands formed and their durability. I also describe the fulfilment of the support group goals using in-depth interviews with creators and participants of the described communities.