LEADING THE WAY

International Women’s Day is a good time to look how this year’s Gap Festival is celebrating the role of women in the Arts. We hope we’ve created a platform where female artists play a major part and demonstrate so many success stories.

Our music strand is headlined by soul supremo Mica Paris who has not only conquered the world of music but is also well known for her work on TV, radio and the stage – a truly multi-talented woman!

Val McDermid is widely regarded as the queen of crime fiction. She’s proved her equality throughout her career, starting out as one of the youngest undergraduates at St Hilda’s college Oxford and has been vocal in her support of women’s rights.
Harriet Braine, winner of Funny Women Awards 2016 is a great example of an area of entertainment where women have really taken the high ground (think of all those fabulous female comedians - – Victoria Wood, Jennifer Saunders, Jo Brand, Isy Suttie. Miranda Hart …. the list goes on).
And of course, we have a wonderful female a Capella group with Papagena to celebrate the female voice.

Our Arts programme is strongly represented by local female artists, from Sarah Rushbrooke’s ceramics, Mandy Monkcom’s pastel portraits & Chris Scoby-Smith’s mixed media collages to Merete Hawkin’s textiles.

As 2018 is the centenary of (some) women being granted the vote, we’re delighted to have an illustrated talk from Janet Hurst on some of the unsung heroines of WW1 who helped take the right to vote forward.
And last, but not least, so many of the volunteers behind the scene at the festival are women, from Artistic Director Heather to those leading the teams behind social media, marketing, programme development, health & safety and more. We’re making it happen! #PressforProgress #vote100

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