PRESS RELEASE

WOW - WOMEN OF THE WORLD ON TOUR WITH FOUNDER JUDE KELLY IN COUNTDOWN TO WOW’S 15TH ANNIVERSARY

• JUDE KELLY, WOW FOUNDER AND ACCLAIMED THEATRE DIRECTOR, TAKES WOW ON THE ROAD FOR EVENINGS OF OPTIMISM, DETERMINATION AND LAUGHTER

• IN THE COUNTDOWN TO WOW’S 15TH ANNIVERSARY, THE WOW SHOW WITH JUDE KELLY WILL SPOTLIGHT LOCAL HEROES NOMINATED BY THEIR COMMUNITY ACROSS THE UK

• TOUR MARKS NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH ESK PRODUCTIONS

• THE WOW SHOW WILL VISIT TWICKENHAM, CHIPPING NORTON, BRIGHTON, YORK, AND BRADFORD IN OCTOBER

WOW - Women of the World will head off on tour this autumn with a brand new live series, The WOW Show with Jude Kelly. WOW’s Founder and acclaimed theatre director will invite conversation around our often exasperating and confusing journey towards gender equity with audiences at theatres around the country.

Produced in a new partnership with esk, Jude will share the stage with a different line-up of special guests to be announced at each venue, including amazing women and non-binary people local to each area who are making change happen – challenging stereotypes, bucking the trend, and who have inspiring personal stories to share.

Alongside personal anecdotes, big pictures analysis and tales of incredible women you may have never heard of but who changed the course of history, each evening will crowdsource burning issues and ideas local audiences want to talk about, covering everything from money, sex, race, food, ageing and more, as WOW and audiences will discover along the way.

Each tour date will include an appearance by a local hero working to better the lives of people in their area, nominated by the local community. Details of the nomination process and all guests who will appear on the first The WOW Show with Jude Kelly will be announced later this year.

The tour will visit The Exchange Twickenham (10 October), Chipping Norton Theatre (11 October), Brighton Dome Studio Theatre (12 October), York Theatre Royal (13 October), and Bradford St George’s Hall (16 October).

Jude Kelly said: “I’m excited to be hitting the road with WOW and heading off on tour. Wherever WOW is in the world, the thing I enjoy most is meeting local heroines and unearthing stories of the incredible things people are doing in their communities. It’s WOW’s 15th anniversary in 2025, and although we are far from having a gender equal society, there is still a huge amount to celebrate. I’m looking forward to meeting the people that are making change happen in their local towns and cities, and joining with audiences as we celebrate together this autumn.”

The WOW Show with Jude Kelly follows recent WOW Festivals in Rotherham and Manchester in the UK, and in Pakistan, Nepal, Turkey, Greece and Australia, all of which have taken place in the build up to WOW’s 15th anniversary in 2025. Founded in 2010, WOW Festivals and events celebrate women, girls and non-binary people and take a frank look at the obstacles they face. Run by charity The WOW Foundation, WOW has reached five million people across the globe to date.

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

LISTINGS

The WOW Show with Jude Kelly

10 October, The Exchange Twickenham, on sale 14 June

11 October, Chipping Norton Theatre, tickets on sale now

12 October, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, on sale 14 June

13 October, York Theatre Royal, on sale soon

16 October, Bradford St George’s, on sale 14 June

IMAGES

Download images here.

-ENDS-

For further information please contact

Kate Hassell kate@breadandbutterpr.uk

Skye Redman skye@breadandbutterpr.uk

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 five million people in 45 locations on six continents, in locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA.

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 equity in their own communities. One example of the Festival’s impact 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 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 equity for women and girls.

WOW Festival was originally produced and presented by Southbank Centre.

The President of WOW - Women of the World is Her Majesty The Queen.

WOW Festivals will be taking place around the world in the next 12 months:

• WOW Australia: October 2024

• WOW Kathmandu: November 2024

• WOW Athens: April 2025

• WOW Baltimore: April 2025

About Jude Kelly

Jude Kelly CBE is CEO and Founder of The WOW Foundation, which runs WOW - Women of the World Festivals across the globe to celebrate the achievements of women, girls and non-binary people and confront global gender injustice. Starting at London’s Southbank Centre in 2010, where Jude was Artistic Director for 12 years, the festival now takes place in 45 locations across six continents. Jude is also a multi-award winning theatre director and has directed over 200 productions. In 2015 she was awarded a CBE for services to the Arts and throughout her career has advised governments on arts, education and social mobility.

About esk

esk is a creative producer of live entertainment, combining international brands with live audiences. Founded in 2022 and with a creative flair for telling powerful stories in a live setting, some of their recent shows and content have included: Wild Isles Live (a spoken word series with the BBC and Silverback Films), Life on Our Planet in Concert (an immersive concert experience with a live orchestra for Netflix) and Top Gun: Maverick in Concert (an orchestral blockbuster show with Paramount). The company is located in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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

SATURDAY 25 MAY - DAY PROGRAMME

Award winning writer and actor Sophie Willan (Alma’s Not Normal), and actress and disability activist Liz Carr (Silent Witness) join the Saturday line-up to discuss the challenges and triumphs of being women on TV and why representation matters. In a conversation chaired by Geeta Pendse, the panel explores the narratives shaping our screens and cultures and who gets to tell those stories, as they share insights, laughs and their incredible personal journeys to fame, from growing up in care to navigating discrimination.

In addition there will be previously announced sessions with Jude Kelly and former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, who will open the Saturday programme exploring the world women, girls and non-binary people face today; The Chain author Chimene Suleyman in conversation with author and activist Charlie Craggs and Dr Leyla Hussein will explore how relationships can quickly turn sour and why society allows persistent misogyny to thrive; and DJ Paulette – one of only two women DJs to have a regular residency at the Hacienda - discussing Manchester’s lost music venues with Factory International’s Head of Music Rivca Burns and Santana Guérout, Chief of Programming at Band on the Wall.

WOW’s Big Ideas provide opportunities to hear some of the world’s best and most compelling speakers present their big ideas to change the world. On Saturday, Dr Layal Liverpool will explore how racism is making us ill; Gift Sally Akinyi O from Womankind Worldwide talks Everyday Feminism and how everydays acts help us move towards achieving gender equality; Taslima Ahmed from CDM UK, will discuss navigating a late life autism diagnosis as a South Asian woman; David Bartlett from Equimundo explains why better boyhoods are good for everyone; and Mel Johnson talks Solo parenting.

Workshops will take place throughout the day delving into a broad range of topics, ideas and creative practices. Pole dancer, academic, performer, activist and blogger Dr Carolina Are will lead a session on the algorithmic bias against nudity, its relationship to patriarchy and how to challenge censorship publicly. Hattie Hasan MBE, founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers will hold a plumbing workshop for beginners, whilst Yamina Peerzada from WOW Pakistan will lead a session where creativity meets eco consciousness. There will also be a special workshop on Tatreez - traditional Palestinian embroidery - its history and cultural significance, a zine making session with Take Up Space Manchester, and a music and mindfulness workshop inspired by Afro-Brazilian dance and body percussion.

SUNDAY 26 MAY - DAY PROGRAMME

Maxine Peake and Jude Kelly start the day with a discussion on Manchester, what the future looks like for the creative industries and the optimism that keeps them going.

Dr Leyla Hussein, Global Advocacy Director for The Girl Generation - Support to the Africa-led movement to end female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) will lead a conversation on what it means to have a girl-centred approach to tackling gendered violence. Joined by young people who are leading the fight against gendered violence in their communities across East Africa, the discussion will explore why the voices and experiences of young people must be at the forefront of meaningful change.

Actor Zawe Ashton and broadcaster Gemma Cairney, two friends with celebrated careers in the arts, will explore how identity and creativity intersect in a frank and open discussion touching on race, gender, new motherhood and how their industries often do not feel built for the complex intersections of so many artists.

Author and former hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, curator and art historian Rachel Dedman and author on sustainable fashion Aja Barber discuss the transformative power of garments. The conversation will delve into the broader context of fashion, navigating male and state-imposed dress codes, touching on global movements for sustainability in the fashion industry, the erasure of traditions and how clothes and needlework can be tools for change and survival.

Sunday’s WOW Big Ideas will be from: Helen Pankhurst on why she can’t give it a rest; Nazir Afzal making the case for why organisational culture matters; Leanne Yau discussing Radical Connections Through Relationship Anarchy; and Dr Mona El-Farra exploring why the situation in Gaza is a feminist issue.

Girl Gang Manchester will kick off the workshops on Sunday morning with Screaming into the Void - a chance to scream at the top of your voice into a darkened, expansive space, followed by Angst Aerobics - an emotional exorcism through exercise. Dr Leyla Hussein explores the root cause of burnout in a session which will provide practical strategies to cultivate psychological safety. Award winning arts practitioner, podcaster and broadcaster, Audrey Hall facilitates a sharing circle for women creatives over the age of 35, to ask, 'Was enough, enough?', to connect and convene to launch her Safe Space Sisterhood community. Further sessions throughout the day includes drawing your inner self with Promina Shrestha from WOW Nepal, an upcycling workshop with Drag Kings from Morris Choudry Qreations, an empowering workshop focused on celebrating Black Joy and Menstrual Mood Mapping.

Across the festival WOW’s much-loved Marketplace will feature over 50 pop-up stores, experiences and happenings. There will be interactive spaces from Global Fund for Women, a film screening from Womankind Worldwide; a confessional booth inspired by Gillian Anderson’s new book Want; drop-in workshops on block-printing and clay modelling; a Re:Yak workshop on upcycling clothes from Lucy & Yak; a Youth Zone and new artistic installations commissioned especially for WOW Manchester - Womenity by Ina-Maria Shikongo and MOONMOTH by Tania Kovats on display.

Alongside the Day ticket programmes, WOW will present free events throughout the weekend. Guided history walks highlighting women confined to the footnotes of history will take place, whilst a WOW Pop-Up will host a range of activities in the Social Space including learning how to make dyes from natural ingredients, poetry and WOW bites sessions. As part of ongoing project My City, My Voice, four musicians from Istanbul and Manchester will take up residence at WOW Manchester to create new music, in situ at the festival over a six hour period. WOW’s much-loved Speed Mentoring sessions will take place in the lower foyer offering an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with people from a huge variety of fields, including theatre directors, journalists, scientists, campaigners, artists and WOW speakers.

In the lead-up to the festival, WOW will bring a very special edition of The Hope Brigade to Manchester. Originally conceived in 2020, The Hope Brigade is a photography series profiling incredible women working at the forefront of their fields in 10 essential areas from conflict to climate justice, from Ake to Athens and Beijing to Brisbane. Working in partnership with Selfridges, WOW Manchester has added a further 10 portraits to the collection, profiling incredible leaders, activists and experts living and working in the North West. The series will be on display at Selfridges Exchange Square from 13 - 27 May.

Run by UK charity The WOW Foundation, 2024 will be the 14th WOW Festival in the UK and the first to be held in Manchester. 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 five million people in more than 45 locations across the globe on six continents. Alongside Manchester WOW Festivals have also taken place this year in locations including Pakistan and Istanbul, with Kathmandu coming up later this year.

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

LISTINGS

WOW Manchester 2024

24-26 May, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ

Weekend or Day Tickets available for Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th May

All evening events £10-£25
Weekend Ticket price £25, £12.50 concessions

Day Ticket price £15, limited Aviva £10 tickets available

FRIDAY 24 MAY

Brutally Honest - An Evening with Mel B

Friday 24 May / 7:30pm, £25 full price; £12.50 concessions, limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios

BSL Interpreted and Captioned

SATURDAY 25 MAY

Saturday WOW Festival Day Ticket

Saturday 25 May / 10:30am-6pm, £15 Full Price; limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios (Many events will be BSL Interpreted and/or Captioned)

Weirdo - An evening with Sara Pascoe

Saturday 25 May / 6pm, £15 full price; £7.50 concessions, limited Aviva £10 tickets available.

Aviva Studios

BSL Interpreted and Captioned

SUNDAY 26 MAY

Sunday WOW Festival Day Ticket

Sunday 26 May / 10:30am-6pm, £15 Full Price; limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios (Many events will be BSL Interpreted and/or Captioned)

Masculinity, Addiction and Learning to Love - An Evening with Jordan Stephens

Sunday 26 May / 6pm, £22 full price; £11 concessions; limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios

BSL Interpreted and Captioned

IMAGES

Download images here.

-ENDS-

For further information please contact

Kate Hassell kate@breadandbutterpr.uk

Skye Redman skye@breadandbutterpr.uk

@breadandbutterpr

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 five million people in 45 locations on six continents, in locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA.

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 equity in their own communities. One example of the Festival’s impact 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 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 equity for women and girls.

WOW Festival was originally produced and presented by Southbank Centre.

The President of WOW - Women of the World is Her Majesty The Queen.

WOW Festivals will be taking place around the world in the next 12 months:

• WOW Rotherham: 11 May 2024

• WOW Biloela: 31 May - 1 June 2024

• WOW Australia: October 2024

• WOW Kathmandu: November 2024 tbc

• WOW Baltimore: 5 April 2025

• WOW Athens: 5 - 6 April 2025

About Factory International

Factory International commissions, produces and presents a year-round programme of original creative work and special events at Aviva Studios, its landmark new home in Manchester, online, and internationally through its network of co-commissioners and partners. It also stages the city-wide Manchester International Festival every other year.

The design of Aviva Studios is led by Ellen van Loon of the world-leading practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Built with flexibility in mind, the building is based around large, open, adaptable spaces that can be constantly reconfigured, enabling artists to develop and create large-scale work of invention and ambition of a kind not seen anywhere else in the world.

A unique canvas to make, explore and experiment, audiences can enjoy the broadest range of art forms from major exhibitions and concerts to intimate performances and immersive experiences. The venue’s development is led by Manchester City Council, with backing of £99.05m from HM Government and £7m National Lottery funding from Arts Council England.

Factory International builds on the legacy of Manchester International Festival, one of the world’s leading arts festivals, and the first to be entirely focused on the commissioning and producing of ambitious new work. Staged every two years in Manchester since 2007, world-renowned artists from different art forms and backgrounds create dynamic, innovative and forward-thinking new work in venues and spaces across Greater Manchester.

Factory International plays an important role in the lives of Greater Manchester residents, bringing jobs, skills, training and creative opportunities. Through the Factory Academy, Factory International is training the creative workforce of the future, while its pioneering creative engagement and artist development programmes create year-round opportunities for local people to get involved, from participating in flagship commissions to shaping the organisation through involvement in its public forums.

Factory International is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.