The WOW Barn Festival followed a spectacular 24 hour barn build by 300 women and non-binary people. The entire site at Cinder Moor in central Leeds was transformed into a festival full of talks, skills workshops, food, music and more.

The festival celebrated women, girls and non-binary people with a day of talks, culture, rallies and events. The programme included speakers such as Corrine Bailey Rae, Mina Smallman and Akeela Din Mohammed. Packed with chances to learn how to build your own spaces, there were workshops on plumbing, drilling and building your own bird box in the shape of The WOW Barn.

Throughout the week before there were events in the Barn with highlights including live sessions from spoken word poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, comedy from Bridget Christie and Shazia Mirza, an evening with chef and broadcaster Andi Oliver, “rock star classicist” Natalie Haynes and a new commission from Bradford poet Kirsty Taylor.

The WOW Barn and The WOW Barn Festival was created in partnership by Leeds Year of Culture 2023 and The WOW Foundation.

The WOW Barn was supported by West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leeds City Council and delivered in partnership with Civic Engineers and Leeds College of Building. Original concept commissioned by UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK with funding from the UK Government.

Discover more about Leeds Year of Culture 2023 here.