PRESS RELEASE – 25 JANUARY 2023

WOW FESTIVAL LONDON 2023

WOW - WOMEN OF THE WORLD ANNOUNCES FURTHER LINE UP FOR 2023 LONDON FESTIVAL

• ROXANE GAY, ONE OF AMERICA'S BEST LOVED WRITERS AND CULTURAL CRITICS COMES TO LONDON FOR ONE-NIGHT-ONLY AS PART OF THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL.

• JANE GARVEY AND FI GLOVER HOST A SPECIAL RECORDING OF THEIR NEW PODCAST OFF AIR WITH JANE AND FI FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS.

• OLONI, THE UK’S FAVOURITE SEXPERT PRESENTS A MAJOR NO-HOLDS-BARRED DISCUSSION AROUND SEX, ORGASMS, LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS.

• WOW PRESENT AN EXCLUSIVE SCREENING OF PRIMA FACIE, STARRING JODIE COMER.

• DEBORAH LEVY, KIT DE WAAL, MEERA SYAL, LAUREN LAVERNE, KATY HESSEL JUNO DAWSON, SHARMADEAN REID, ALIX FOX, IFY ADENUGA, BENAFSHA YAQOOBI, KIM MOORE, LAURA CORYTON AND MANY MORE JOIN THE DAY PASS LINE-UP.

• THEY JOIN PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED SPEAKERS: JULIA GILLARD, KATHY BURKE, ELIF SHAFAK, SHANI DHANDA, PAT MITCHELL, SALI HUGHES, MEGAN BARTON-HANSON, SHOBNA GULATI, STEPHANIE YEBOAH AND WOW FOUNDER JUDE KELLY.

• JAZZTRONICA ARTIST LAYFULLSTOP IS ANNOUNCED AS THE WOW SOUNDS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE FOR 2023

• DAY PASS EVENTS INCLUDE DISCUSSIONS ON MISCARRIAGE, POLICING AND WOMEN’S SAFETY, INCEL CULTURE, FAT ACTIVISM, ADDICTION, THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS, THE CASE FOR FREE CHILDCARE AND A RADICAL REIMAGINING OF THE HOME.

• WOW – WOMEN OF THE WORLD’S 13TH LONDON FESTIVAL RUNS 10-12 MARCH AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE WITH TICKETED EVENTS AND DAY PASSES NOW ON SALE

WOW - Women of the World has today revealed the full line-up for its 2023 London Festival, which returns to the Southbank Centre from 10-12 March to mark International Women’s Day, supported by The WOW Foundation’s Global Founding Partner, Bloomberg.

Tickets for the 13th edition of the world’s biggest and most comprehensive festival celebrating women, girls and non-binary people are now on sale here. Tickets for headline events start from £10, and there is a free programme of festival events on offer. WOW is also working with community groups and ticketing initiatives to make 400 free tickets available to the festival.

There will be three headline evening events across the festival. On Friday evening, Legendary broadcasters Jane Garvey and Fi Glover will unpack some of the big news of the day in an extended live edition of their new podcast from The Times Off Air… with Jane and Fi, live from the Royal Festival Hall alongside special guests to be announced.

On Saturday evening, WOW will reclaim sex and go big on orgasms in the Royal Festival Hall with sexpert, relationship advisor and author of The Big O, Oloni. In conversation with Tolani Shoneye, co-host of the award-winning The Receipts Podcast, Oloni will debunk taboos around pleasure for women and take a deep dive into sex positivity, kinks, pleasure and her mission to reclaim sex - with plenty of time for audience questions. They’ll be joined by special guest, actor and musician Jordan Stephens (Rizzle Kicks) in this fun and freeing, no holds barred conversation.

On Sunday night, Roxane Gay, one of the leading feminist voices of our time, comes to London for one-night-only. From politics and patriarchy to Beyoncé and reality television, the author of Bad Feminist - universally considered the quintessential exploration of modern feminism - will join WOW for an unforgettable evening of conversation and celebration of her work that has garnered acclaim across the world for its honesty and ferocity. Tickets for this event will go on sale on 1 February.

WOW have also today announced new sessions and speakers as part of the Day Pass programme for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day features a different line-up, offering audiences the chance to choose from dozens of events in multiple spaces and venues.

Jude Kelly CBE, Julia Gillard, Laura Bates, Elif Shafak and activist Josephine Kamara will open the festival on Friday 10 March with a session on women, misogyny and power, followed by conversations throughout the day spanning the cost of living crisis, mental health, fat activism and what it takes to be a CEO.

Other new sessions include Courtney Boateng and Renee Kapuku, co-hosts of To My Sisters podcast, who will explore how to embrace the power of friendship and community as they look to reinvigorate sisterhood and redefine womanhood; Sharmadean Reid runs a workshop on leadership for the next 1000 years; Nike join us to present a Big Idea on confidence and sports bras, with leading mental health and body image expert Pr Phillippa Diedrichs; and there will be a special edition of WOW Big Ideas focusing on health with speakers Ione Gamble and Dr Annabel Sowemimo.

Juno Dawson and Megan Barton-Hason will ask if you can be Feminist with Fillers; Dr Finn MacKay and Dr Sofia Rehman join Shahed Ezaydi to discuss how we ensure the feminist movement remains led by and inclusive of those that experience marginalisation most keenly; Jennie Agg, Roslyn Springer and Miranda Ward will lead a supportive session on miscarriages and baby loss burnout; and in Women, Life, Freedom, Afghan disability rights advocate Benafsha Yaqoobi, award-winning Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Leila Akrami and WOW festival organisers from around the world share their struggles for justice and stories of resistance. Plus audience members will encounter WOW Pop Ups throughout the day including double dutch skipping from JUMP LDN and a self defence workshop with London Krav Maga.

Urgent political conversations on climate change and the case for free childcare will also take place at WOW on Saturday 11 March, alongside previously announced discussions about hair loss, the future of sex and a joyful in conversation with Kathy Burke.

Joining the Saturday programme is an interactive writing workshop on our Right to Rage with award-winning poet Kim Moore; an exploration and celebration of life as an eldest daughter with Yasin Bojang, co-founder of Home Girls Unite, Aisha Al-Abdallah and authors Ify Adenuga and Esther Oluga; there will be a game show hosted by Consent Collective; and Money and Mental Health’s Helen Undy, Sarah Howard, Theatre Director and Access Manager of the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Nadia Baksh from Imkaan (an organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and Minoritised women and girls), and stripper, performance artist, writer, activist Stacey Clare lead an urgent conversation on the real cost of cuts for people with disabilities and those in vulnerable positions. Nike will be in the building to talk breaking barriers and belonging in sport with inspiring leaders from community organisations and more. And don’t miss their workshop with dancer extraordinaire Trina Nicole.

They join sessions on the history of Bengali Activism with Raisa Hassan, Shabna Begum, Farzana Khan and Dr Fatima Rajina; Girls’ Day School Trust will explore whether social conditioning has made women better leaders, following the publication of the Girls’ Futures research report; and Emma Boynton and Simona Xu on the role of big tech in the Future of Sex. Change making organisation Beyond Equality will also present a conversation about masculinity and what it means to be a man in 2023, with speakers to be announced. As part of the free WOW Pop Ups line-up, Saturday audiences can catch D.M.S. (aka Dani Makes Songs) perform some of her latest tracks live and hear powerful spoken word, written and performed by young people as part of WOW’s young people’s programme.

The Sunday Day Pass at WOW will explore how kindness can change your life, the world of deep fakes and revenge porn, and present WOW Big Ideas from Alice Sherwood and Shobna Gulati. RAW in WAR will return to the festival to present Tetiana Sokolova and Svetlana Gannushkina with the Anna Politkovskaya Award. African based programme Girl Generation will also be bringing over five young people to discuss the importance of taking a girl centred approach to gendered violence.

Acclaimed writer Kit de Waal joins Jude Kelly to open the Sunday programme at WOW. Later that day award-winning author, poet and playwright Deborah Levy will be in conversation; journalist Harriet Hall, founder of Everyday Sexism Project Laura Bates, and Cut From the Same Cloth? author and WOW Senior Programmer Sabeena Akhtar will take a deep dive into the murky world of incel culture; Katy Hessel will be in conversation about her bestselling book The Story of Art Without Men, and award-winning comedian and host of The Breakup Monologues Rosie Wilby will be joined by writer, broadcaster and Sex Education script consultant Alix Fox to share funny, bizarre and poignant tales of heartbreak and recovery in a live version of Rosie’s hit podcast.

In addition there will be previously announced sessions on addiction and recovery and the recognition of associated trauma with writers Octavia Bright and Sabrina Pace-Humphreys; and Sali Hughes will be in conversation with Lauren Laverne about Sali’s new book Everything is Washable.

On Saturday evening, WOW in association with UK Jazz Plus Sessions will present a free gig featuring a powerhouse bill of artists - Miss Baby Sol, Emily Saunders, Martha D Lewis and Sacha T - from the growing genre of UK Jazz Singer Songwriters who are redefining what it means to be a jazz singer today, conveying their cultural influences and creating a new hybrid space between jazz, RnB, hip hop, avant-garde and indie. In addition WOW Sounds Artist in Residence for 2023, LayFullstop, a critically acclaimed Jazztronica/Christian artist from Manchester, will host and perform a special one-off gig at the festival. Her WOW Sounds residency is supported by PRS For Music Foundation. WOW Sounds is the charity’s first ever dedicated music programme platforming revolutionary women and non-binary musicians and spoken word artists who are using music as a form of activism.

Ahead of the festival on International Women's Day (8th March), an exclusive one-off screening of Suzie Miller’s award-winning play, Prima Facie directed by Justin Martin and starring Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) will be presented by WOW at BFI Southbank. A blistering take on how our legal system fails survivors of sexual assault, Empire Street Productions’ Prima Facie was captured live in London’s West End as part of NT Live and became a sell-out cinema event of 2022, and returns for one-night only as part of the festival. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Jude Kelly, Helena Kennedy KC and other guests to be announced.

The festival will also feature the return of the much-loved WOW Marketplace, a programme of free WOW Pop Up performances, free WOW Speed Mentoring and Under 10’s Feminist Corner for budding young feminists everywhere. There will also be events specifically for children - Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices with illustrator Dapo Adeola and writers Hannah Lee and Maame Blue; Tolá Okogwu will bring her story Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun to life; and Emma Carroll and Lauren Child come to WOW to present The Little Match GirlStrikes Back.

Jude Kelly CBE, CEO and Founder of The WOW Foundation said: "Women and girls are dealing with significant anxiety with the cost of living, health, childcare, and the ongoing epidemic of violence. WOW provides the space for everyone to come together to explore solutions and create community, as well as taking time to celebrate amazing achievements across the globe in the ongoing march towards a gender equal world. Everyone needs the annual WOW tonic, and we hope you'll join us."

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Run by UK charity The WOW Foundation, 2023 will be the 13th WOW London Festival. In 2018, WOW Founder Jude Kelly built on the success of the festival to create UK-based charity The WOW Foundation to run the global WOW movement that believes a gender equal world is urgently needed, possible and desirable. Since the inaugural London Festival in 2010, launched by Kelly at the Southbank Centre, WOW and its partners across the world have reached more than three million people in more than 100 festivals and events across six continents. Alongside London WOW Festivals will take place this year in locations including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Athens, Scotland, Rotherham and Leeds.

The WOW Foundation is proudly supported by its Global Founding Partner Bloomberg, and Global Partner Mastercard.

LISTINGS
WOW London 2023

10 – 12 March, Southbank Centre

Day passes available for Friday 10, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 March

All evening events £10-£38

Day Pass price £45

WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH

WOW Presents Prima Facie

Wednesday 8 March / 6.15pm, £20 (£16 conc.)

BFI Southbank

FRIDAY 10 MARCH

WOW Speed Mentoring

Friday 10 March / 9am-10am, free but ticketed

Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall

Friday WOW Festival Day Pass

Friday 10 March / 10am-6pm, £45

Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)

WOW Marketplace

Friday 10 March / 11am-7pm, free

Royal Festival Hall

WOW Sounds Presents LayFullstop

Friday 10 March / 6.30pm-7.15pm, free

Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall

Off Air with Jane and Fi at WOW

Friday 10 March / 7.30pm-9pm, £10, £18, £28, £38

Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)

SATURDAY 11 MARCH

Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices

Saturday 11 March / 10.15am-11.15am, Adult £10, Child £7.50

Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall

WOW Under 10's Feminist Corner for Girls: Ages 6 & 7

Saturday 11 March / 10.30am-11.30am, £6

Foyle Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall

Saturday WOW Festival Day Pass

Saturday 11 March / 10am-6pm, £45

Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)

WOW Marketplace

Saturday 11 March / 11am-7pm, free

Royal Festival Hall

WOW Under 10's Feminist Corner for Girls: Ages 8 - 10

Saturday 11 March / 5pm-6pm, £6

Foyle Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall

WOW Speed Mentoring

Saturday 11 March / 5.30pm-6.30pm, free but ticketed

Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall

The Big O with Oloni at WOW

Saturday 11 March / 7.30pm-9pm, £10, £15, £25

Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)

UK Jazz Plus Sessions - Live at WOW

Saturday 11 March / 9pm-10.30pm, free

Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall

SUNDAY 12 MARCH

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

Sunday 12 March / 10.15am-11.15am, Adult £10, Child £7.50

Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall

Tolá Okogwu: Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

Sunday 12 March / 10.15am-11.15am, Adult £10, Child £7.50

Level 4 Blue Bar at Royal Festival Hall

WOW Under 10's Feminist Corner for Boys: Ages 8 - 10

Sunday 12 March / 10.30am-11.30am, £6

Foyle Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall

Sunday WOW Festival Day Pass

Sunday 12 March / 10am-6pm, £45

Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)

WOW Marketplace

Sunday 12 March / 11am-7pm, free

Royal Festival Hall

WOW Under 10's Feminist Corner for Girls: Ages 8 - 10

Sunday 12 March / 5pm-6pm, £6

Foyle Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall

Roxane Gay Live at WOW

Sunday 12 March / 7.30pm-9pm, pricing TBC

Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)

IMAGES

Download images here.

NOTES TO EDITORS

About The WOW Foundation

The WOW Foundation was created by Jude Kelly CBE in 2018 to run the global movement that is WOW - Women of the World Festivals. The Festivals began in the UK in 2010, launched by Kelly at the Southbank Centre London, 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 5 million people in 30 locations on six continents, in locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA. In 2018/19 WOW was in Rio de Janeiro, Cardiff, Bradford, Bangladesh, Brisbane, Janakpur (Nepal), Baltimore, London, Exeter, Norwich, Perth, Beijing, Ghana and Nigeria. In June 2020, WOW held its first ever worldwide online festival focused on women and girls — WOW Global 24. The festival travelled around the world everywhere from the UK to Nigeria, and Pakistan to Australia exploring the intersectional impact of COVID-19 on gender inequality, and responding to Black Lives Matter.

Over the last 13 years 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 has come 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 a charity 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 unique festival model creates numerous pathways for participants to take part in WOW projects, amplify their own causes, or start new initiatives which have a 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 and events are presented by arrangement with the Southbank Centre.

The former Duchess of Cornwall was The WOW Foundation’s President.

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg – the global business, financial information and news leader – is a founding supporter of WOW - Women of the World Festivals. Bloomberg has long supported organisations and causes that advance gender equality and seek to address challenges women face around the world, from maternal and reproductive health to women’s economic empowerment and inspiring the new generation of female leaders. Bloomberg has proudly supported WOW Festivals since 2012 www.bloomberg.com/women

About the Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre occupying a prominent riverside location that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. The Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to six Resident Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Orchestra).