WOW Istanbul is back for 2024!

WOW Istanbul's third edition will take place at BeykozKundura, a unique cultural heritage site transformed into a space of arts and culture in Istanbul by the British Council; in partnership with Beykoz Kundura and in collaboration with the WOW Foundation in the UK on 2-3 March 2024.

WOW festivals are unique in bringing together the arts and culture sector with civil society to celebrate women and girls and create new collaborations to address women’s issues, based on the power of the arts to stimulate new ways of seeing the world and new and inclusive forums for reflection and dialogue. Implementing WOW Foundation’s unique methodology, WOW Istanbul will create safe spaces with talks, workshops, performances, food, music, and mentoring, showcasing creatives enhancing the role of the arts in creating a positive impact on understanding of gender equality.

This year, WOW Istanbul Festival will be hosting international delegates who will join the festival as speakers, performers and as audiences. Gender equality consultants from the Gender and Inclusion team of the British Council, a delegation of civil society professionals from the Wider Europe Region of the British Council as well as the musicians from the Western Balkan and representatives from the WOW Global movement will be attending the festival to meet audiences and professionals from Turkey.

Find out more about WOW Istanbul here and subscribe to our newsletter for updates as the programme is announced in the coming months.

The WOW Foundation works in partnership with amazing women and organisations to create WOW Festivals across the world. The WOW organisers in each location ensure the content is created by the local community for the local community. While each festival is different in its own wonderful, unique way, there are elements that stay consistent at every WOW Festival wherever you are in the world; from the WOW Marketplace to Under 10's Feminist Corners.

In the past decade, the WOW movement has grown from its London beginnings to find homes everywhere from Beijing and Kathmandu to Baltimore and Brisbane.

To date, there have been more than 100 festivals and events across six continents, reaching more than five million people from thousands of women in favelas at WOW Rio to Territory women at WOW Katherine.