Designer, Mask-Maker, Seamstress? (or just interested). We need you NOW to plan for the Oxford International Women’s Festival.

There will be a meeting at 7.30pm on Monday 11 December in the back room of the Mitre, High Street, to plan the procession that will launch Oxford’s International Women’s Festival on 3 March 2007. In recent years there hasn’t been much emphasis on the procession but this year we are being more ambitious, and are thinking of including a climate change Monster, a women’s samba band and the Four Bikewomen of the Apocalypse (environmental theme, see?). We need volunteers to help us create costumes, masks, possibly banners etc. You don’t need to have any special skills, everyone is welcome, though of course if you can design clothes, paint masks etc we’d be delighted to have you. In the New Year we anticipate holding several workshops, in a fairly central place, though it would also be possible to use people’s houses if preferred.


Some background info
Every year for the last 17 years Oxford has held a fortnight-long Women’s Festival, including an evening of celebration in the Town Hall to mark International Women’s Day on March 8. Events during the fortnight are organized by the many women’s groups in Oxford as well as individuals, and include everything from serious speaker events (at Ruskin College etc) to music, dance, and even fashion shows of ethical clothing. This year the theme is ‘All our Futures: Women and the Environment’, and the programme is shaping up to be its usual rich mix of informative events and entertainment. One aim of the Festival is to give women the chance to display and develop their talents, and on a number of occasions this has led to a change of career or participation in an exciting new project.
For more information, see:  http://www.oxfordwomen.co.uk/ or contact Chris Eady:  christine.eadywat@tiscali.co.uk.