The music, ideas and technology conference Moogfest is responding to a complaint that was voiced often over the last year — that music festivals frequently overlook or under-book L.G.B.T. artists and women — by beginning to roll out its 2018 lineup with an announcement of female, nonbinary and transgender performers. 

The event, which runs May 17-20 in Durham, N.C., will feature the D.J.s Honey Dijon and Ellen Allien; the mysterious British pop producer-musician Sophie; the multidisciplinary sound explorer Fatima Al Qadiri; LCD Soundsystem’s synthesizer maven Gavin Rayna Russom; and the Japanese percussionist and composer Midori Takada, among others.  A keynote conversation with Chelsea Manning will close the festival.  Additional artists will be announced in January. 

In a preliminary celebration this week, Moogfest is partnering with Tom Tom magazine (tagline: “Drummers.  Music.  Feminism”) to present “Always On,” a 50-hour marathon featuring 50 female, nonbinary and transgender musicians in 35 cities and 17 countries taking turns live-streaming their sets.  The event starts on Wednesday at 12 p.m. EST and ends on Friday at 2 p.m. EST.  The artists run the gamut from Madame Gandhi, who used to play drums with M.I.A., to Nicola Kuperus of the Detroit cold-wave duo Adult.;  from Au Revoir Simone’s Annie Hart to D.J. Haram from the Discwoman collective; and from the rapper and poet Moor Mother to the electronic-music pioneer Suzanne Ciani. 

“It’s pure and celebratory in trying to highlight these incredible artists all over the globe,” the Moogfest director of programming Lorna-Rose Simpson said in a phone interview. “ Through technology, we can allow musicians who maybe don’t get represented enough — some of them are a little unknown, some of them are very well known — to be equal on this platform, where everyone gets one hour to perform.”