PRESS RELEASE – Thursday 30th September 2021

WOW FESTIVAL LONDON 2022

• WOW - WOMEN OF THE WORLD ANNOUNCES 2022 LONDON FESTIVAL: 11-13 MARCH AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE WITH DAY PASSES NOW ON SALE

• SOUL SINGER MISS BABY SOL ANNOUNCED AS FESTIVAL’S WOW SOUNDS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
  
  
• ALSO ANNOUNCED: JUDE KELLY HOSTS A NEW SERIES OF THE WOW PODCAST EXPLORING HOW HIDDEN FORCES IN TECH, MEDIA AND THE ECONOMY SHAPE WOMEN’S LIVES

• PODCAST GUESTS INCLUDE JUNE SARPONG, MARTHA LANE-FOX, SEYI AKIWOWO AND NICOLA MENDELSOHN

WOW - Women of the World has today announced dates for its 2022 London Festival, which returns at the Southbank Centre to mark International Women’s Day. From 11-13 March, the London edition of the world’s biggest, most comprehensive festival celebrating women, girls and non-binary people will be back in person after some of the toughest years in recent history for gender equality.

Across the three days, WOW London 2022’s line-up of world class speakers, inspirational activists, musicians, artists and comedians will take over the Southbank Centre for discussions, workshops, performances and debates including everything from sex to politics, “grandmotherdom”, divorce, sexual violence, childlessness, reproductive rights, career changes, poverty, resistance and resilience, girls education, love and relationships, football and how the pandemic has affected us all.

Day Passes are now on sale for Friday and Saturday. A sell out every year, Day Passes give WOW festival goers access to dozens of talks, performances, workshops and more, which are the heart of the festival. WOW London 2022 will see the return of many other WOW favourites including the free-to-explore WOW Marketplace and the sell-out Under-10s Feminist Corners. On sale now, these fun interactive workshops invite children to explore equality and discover what life is like for their peers across the world.

Individual ticketed events taking place every evening and all day on Sunday will be announced in the coming months, alongside a digital programme that will be accessible worldwide, and feature events in partnership with other WOW Festivals across the globe.

Run by UK charity The WOW Foundation, 2022 marks the 12th 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, WOW and its partners across the world have reached more than three million people in more than 100 festivals and events across six continents.

WOW has also announced Miss Baby Sol as its first WOW Sounds Artist in Residence, supported by PRS Foundation. Miss Baby Sol’s music spans funk, soul, pop and jazz and her lyrics explore many areas of activism.

As part of the residency, Miss Baby Sol will create three new tracks which she will perform at WOW Festival alongside her existing material. As well as the flagship festival, Miss Baby Sol will take part in other WOW events over a period of six months as part of the WOW Sounds programme which supports and promotes girl, women and non-binary musicians.

The WOW Foundation’s CEO and Founder Jude Kelly said: “WOW Festivals are a time to celebrate, to connect and to work out what we need now and next. We know that women and girls have been hardest hit by COVID-19; finding themselves in ever more precarious positions, especially those already marginalised. Looking to 2022, I feel as keenly as I did when WOW started 12 years ago that there is even more that we can be doing every day to bring about gender equality. We know the need is urgent. So in 2022 I am inviting some of the most inspirational speakers and activists from around the world to share their vision for the future - social, economic, political and cultural - so that we can work together on how to put those ideas into action.As always we will have some of the most talented and thought-provoking artists, musicians and comedians to bring us together inthe biggest celebration of the rights of women, girls and non-binary people across the world."

In further news, WOW has also announced a brand-new season of The WOW Podcast with Jude Kelly. Supported by The WOW Foundation’s Global Founding Partner Bloomberg, over six episodes released from 28 October, the podcast will take listeners on a journey to discover how the forces of technology, media and the economy can shape women’s lives. Featuring Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua, the series will provide inspirational stories and practical tools to help listeners to navigate an increasingly interconnected world. Guests will include major voices from across, media, technology and the economy, including media personalities: June Sarpong, Sarah Sands, Ayesha Hazarika and Pat Mitchell; on technology: Nicola Mendelsohn; Aleks Krotoski; Seyi Akiwowo; Abadesi Osunsade; Caroline Criado Perez; Martha Lane Fox CBE and discussing finance and the economy: Olga Miler; Katrine Marcal; Alastair Lukies; Arlene Isaacs Lowe; Inga Beale and Selina Flavius. The podcast can be accessed for free across all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts.

Global Head of Corporate Philanthropy at Bloomberg L.P., Jemma Read said: “We’re incredibly proud to have supported The WOW Foundation since 2012 to empower women around the world. Women have been impacted disproportionately by recent global events, which is why we’re so excited to convene such an inspirational group to help navigate complex issues together and inspire the next generation of leaders.”

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

LISTINGS

WOW London 2022

11 – 13 March, Southbank Centre

Day passes available for Friday 11 & Saturday 12 March

Day Pass price £40

Under 10’s Feminist Corners

Sat 10.30am for girls aged 6-7 years old

Sat 1.30pm for girls aged 8-10 years old

Sat 4.30pm for boys aged 8-10 years old

Images are available 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 3 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 10 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 President of WOW - Women of the World is HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

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 four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).