What is a WOW Festival?

A WOW Festival is a joyous, fearless celebration of women, girls and non-binary people – a space for connection, conversation and change.
Two women sit on a blue couch, smiling warmly. The woman on the left holds a microphone and wears a patterned dress, while the woman on the right is in a shiny blouse. Both appear engaged and joyful.

Each festival is unique, rooted in its local community yet connected to a global movement. Across 71 places on six continents, WOW Festivals bring together people of all genders to explore the issues that matter most – from climate and care to creativity, leadership, love, health and justice.

WOW transforms public spaces and cultural venues into hubs of energy, inspiration and ideas. You’ll find conversations, performances, workshops, mentoring, music, art, food, activism, laughter and the space to imagine what equality really looks like.

WOW Festivals are not conferences – they are gatherings of humanity. They are places where strangers become allies, where we learn, unlearn, dance, cry, debate and dream.

Every WOW is created with local partners and shaped by the people it serves. Before each festival, we hold WOW Think Ins – open community discussions that ask: What are the big questions we need to talk about here? Those voices help decide the themes, speakers and events that follow. Each festival or event is made up of WOW Building Blocks, which means that 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. There’s always a WOW Marketplace, an Under 10's Feminist Corner, WOW Speed Mentoring, performance, talks and debates, and WOW Big Ideas or Bites.

Since 2010, WOW has grown from one festival in London to an international movement reaching over five million people – from Karachi to New York, Rotherham to Rio, Kathmandu to Brisbane.

Whether it’s your first festival or your fiftieth, you’ll leave WOW feeling energised, connected and full of possibility. Because when we come together to celebrate all we’ve achieved – and to face the challenges that remain – we realise that change is not only possible, it’s already happening.