WOW – Women of the World
10 – 12 March 2023
The WOW movement has reached three million people on six continents
The world’s biggest, most comprehensive festival celebrating women, girls and non-binary people is back in 2023 with its 13th edition.
The story so far
WOW festivals began in the UK in 2010, launched by Jude Kelly here at the Southbank Centre, where she was Artistic Director, to celebrate women and girls, taking a frank look at what prevents them from achieving their potential, raising awareness globally of the issues they face and discussing solutions together.
To date, WOW has reached over two million people in 17 countries on five continents across over 65 festivals – and growing – including in Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA. In 2018 WOW took place in Rio, Karachi, Beijing, Cardiff and Bradford, as well as London, New York, Dhaka, Pakistan Atlanta, Istanbul and China in 2019 and 2020.
The festivals have developed a reputation as a space for world-renowned artists, activists, thinkers and performers, including Angela Davis, Malala Yousafzai, Annie Lennox, Patrick Stewart, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Salma Hayek, to come and participate, alongside thousands of women and girls who don’t have public profiles but are doing amazing things. WOW provides platforms for people of all kinds, changes attitudes, brings communities together and provides a unique space for people to work together towards gender equality in their own communities. One example of the impact the festival came in 2015, with the founding of the Women’s Equality Party by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer.
In 2018 Kelly left the Southbank Centre to run the WOW Foundation full-time as an independent charitable entity working to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is possible and desirable through festivals and empowering women and girls.
The festival model creates numerous pathways for participants to take part in WOW projects, amplify their own causes, or start new initiatives which have wide impact on communities. It is the biggest, most comprehensive and most significant festival dedicated to presenting work by women and promoting equality for women and girls.
WOW festivals are presented by arrangement with the Southbank Centre.