The first Central Coast Festival of Women will be held from March 3 to 11 and aims to unite many different events celebrating women’s contributions to the community.
The Festival starts with the fourth International Women’s Day Expo at Erina Fair Shopping Centre on Saturday, March 3, and highlights many of the women’s organisations on the Coast. Information stalls will include Business and Professional Women Central Coast, Country Women’s Association of NSW, View Clubs of the Central Coast, Soroptimists International Brisbane Water (SIBW), Rotary Clubs of the Central Coast, the Central Coast Community Women’s Health Centre, and Zonta Club of the Central Coast. The University of Newcastle, Central Coast, and TAFE NSW, Ourimbah Campus, will also be involved. Locals will have the chance to see one, two or all three sessions of “All About Women”, streamed live from the Sydney Opera House, on Sunday, March 4. This will be held at Ourimbah Campus.
Sessions include: Grabbing back women in the age of Trump, with Tarana Burke and Fran Lebowitz; The making of a movement, with Tarana Burke and Tracey Spicer; Suffragettes to social media; and, Waves of feminism, with Barbara Caine, Nakkiah Lui, Anne Summers and Rebecca Walker. The festival finishes on Sunday, March 11, with the annual International Women’s Day Breakfast, hosted by SIBW at the Reef Restaurant, The Haven, featuring guest speaker and 2013 Gold Walkley Award winner, Joanne McCarthy, from the Newcastle Herald. Other Festival of Women Events include:
Babes in Black on March 5, hosted by She the Change, at Avoca Surf House; and the International Women’s Day Forum on March 7, hosted by Central Coast Community Women’s Health Centre, Narara The Festival will be launched on March 3 by Central Coast International Women’s Day (IWD) Expo Combined Committee (CCIWDCC), Central Coast Mayor Jane Smith and other local councillors, and state and federal parliamentarians, at Erina Fair Shopping Centre. The Festival showcases local organisations and women who go above and beyond in the region and offers an enhanced sense of local identity for women and girls. Coast FM 96.3 will also be celebrating IWD with a full line-up of female presenters from 6am to 6pm. For all the Festival of Women details, see pages 16 and 17.
Source: Media release, Feb 23 Sally Jope, CCIWDCC