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Women of the World Festival

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Women of the World Festival
VenueSouth Bank Centre, London
Founded8 March 2010 (2010-03-08)
FounderJude Kelly
Previous eventMarch 2015
Next eventMarch 2016
ActivityCelebrates the achievements of women and girls as well as looking at the obstacles they face across the world
Patron(s)Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (president)
Websitewow.southbankcentre.co.uk

Women of the World Festival (WOW) is a UK based festival that celebrates the achievements of women and girls as well as looking at the obstacles they face across the world. It seeks to inspire new generations of young women and girls.

The festival was founded in 2010 by Jude Kelly and contains arts and science programmes. It takes place around International Women's Day in early March. It sponsors lectures, debates and performance on a range of themes and topics. Its principal venue is the South Bank Centre in London, where it was founded. There are satellite venues at other locations, notably Cambridge UK, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Australia, Iceland, New York, Sydney and Egypt. [1][2] [3]

From 2015 Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall become its president.[4] Also in 2015 the BBC streamed much of its content.[5]

The Southbank Centre has been listed in the Times Top 50 employers for women [6]. Its Women of the World festival has been nominated for two awards as part of the Business in the Community Workplace Gender Equality Awards 2016[7].

Description

Women of the World is a week long festival held in various places around the world. It features musical performances, debates, public speeches, mentoring sessions, and more. Women of the World festival is usually referred to as WOW.

The first WOW Festival was held in United Kingdom, but now has many other locations throughout the world. The festivals are rooted in local areas, but are connected internationally. The festivals feed into each other, sharing stories and inspiring one another. All of the festivals are intertwined but each is unique in its own way. They all share the same WOW name. To date the Women of the World Festival has been held across three different continents. By 2018, WOW will take place in 53 countries.

Jill Dolan

The theatre critic Jill Dolan attends the festival every year. Dolan published her book The Feminist Spectator as Critic, on feminist theatre criticism in 2012. She expressed in it her interest in the relationship of feminist criticism to feminist theatre production. She maintains WOW has attained a privileged position as the model for feminist performance. Dolan says, "I went on to suggest that the performances at WOW offered the most potential for subverting the historically conservative performances of gender authorized by theatre production." She found the performances at WOW to be somewhat radical. Dolan has expressed her worry that the insularity of WOW might limit its capacity for social change.

References

  1. ^ WOW-Cambridge Festival WoW Cambridge 2014.
  2. ^ WOW Women Of The World Cambridge accessed March 2015
  3. ^ What’s WOW all about? Founder Jude Kelly explains South Bank Centre website, accessed March 2015
  4. ^ Jobson, Robert (16 February 2015). "Camilla to be president of Women of the World festival". London Evening Standard, Royal Editor. Retrieved March 2015. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. ^ WOW - Women of the World Festival BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, March 2015
  6. ^ "Workplace Gender Equality Awards 2016". Gender. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  7. ^ "Awards & recognition". Business in the Community. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
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