Organized through the partnership between the WOW – Women of the World Foundation and the British Council and with the support of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, WOW Festival Istanbul was held on March 19-20, 2022 with the slogan, “We are together.”
The festival started with an opening panel, titled #WeAreTogether, which was hosted by the Founder and CEO of WOW Foundation, Jude Kelly, and journalist and writer, Zeynep Miraç. The speakers discussed what it means for women to stand in solidarity in a world that continues to experience pandemic, conflict, the impact of migration, climate change and poverty, and how art makes women’s drive for equality more visible.
Jude Kelly said, “WOW Festivals create spaces that allow participants to come together and discuss important issues affecting women’s lives. So far, we have managed to reach more than three million people in many different countries. Being here physically means a lot to us today. We held our first festival in Istanbul online last year. Now we are physically together on this snowy Saturday morning. People can get up on Saturday morning and do many activities, but we are together to talk about gender equality and women’s rights. Coming together to talk about this is not something we can do without really worrying about gender inequality. We will listen to women throughout the festival and share our experiences with each other.”
Curated by independent media outlet, 5Harfliler (5Letters), the ‘5Harfli Sesler’ (5Harfli Voices) brought together 5Harfli authors and 5Harfli readers under the call of “we are looking forward to having you all share and amplify feminist voices”. The WOW Big Ideas section was configured as an open stage for women with different experiences. The section featured a performative reading from writer Şebnem İşigüzel, and actor Tamar Çıtak, as well as talks from Ayşe Tükrükçü from Hayata Sarıl Lokantası (The Embrace Life Restaurant) and Attorney Aslı Karataş.
Speed Mentoring hosted by the SES Equality and Solidarity Association took place in the festival for the first time. In this section, festival participants got the opportunity to engage in fast, candid conversations over the course of an hour with four different mentors to share their experiences and insights.
WOWsers Istanbul was also held for the first time by İKSV Alt Kat. In this section, participants between the ages of 18-21 came together at artist and designer, Pınar Akkurt’s workshop, titled ‘Garbage, Rugs and Pixels’.
WOW Sounds staged the live performance of a group of female musicians from the ‘My City, My Voice’ programme during the #WomenPowerinCulture led by Beril Sarıaltun of the Beatsbygirlz Turkey Chapter and musician and music educator, Mandy Wigby from the United Kingdom.
Under the curation of Elif Cemal and Pelin Opçin of the EFG London Jazz Festival, the WOW Istanbul Collective, formed by musicians from the United Kingdom and Turkey, performed on the first day of the festival. Participants had a chance to experience the UK’s WOW Sounds, composed of specially recorded music performances of some of the most exciting female musicians of the world who were on stage at the 2021 UK WOW Festival.