Weather
Colourful parade launches city festival (From The Oxford Times)
When It Happens Panel Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'OXFORD NEWS' to 80360 or email
Colourful parade launches city festival
7:18pm Sunday 1st March 2009
A colourful parade with samba dancers, giant puppets and drummers kicked off a festival celebrating inspirational and pioneering women.
Up to 10,000 people are expected to attend Oxford International Women’s Festival, which began yesterday with the carnival-style parade.
Shoppers lined Cornmarket Street to watch festival organisers march through the city centre with masks, banners and music.
They were also handed programmes detailing more than 40 planned events including drumming bands, dance, talks and films.
Anne Mobbs, who launched the festival 20 years ago, said: “The crowds really enjoyed it and we gave out lots of lots of programmes for the festival.
“It will be absolutely fantastic — there is something for everyone.
“It is celebrating women’s creativity and achievement and also campaigning for equality and campaigning against violence against women.”
Women in the city planned the 16-day celebration to coincide with International Women’s Day, on Sunday, March 8.
The launch parade started at Oxford Town Hall at 10am and finished in Broad Street.
A giant woman puppet, known as a gigantona and made by people in Oxford’s Nicaraguan twin town of Leon, led the procession.
Sofia Sanchez Sirias, who helped make the puppet, and Milagros Mairena Delgado, who works for a women’s human rights project in Leon, both flew to Oxford to take part in the festival. Jane Mercer, of the Oxford-Leon Association, said members of the group raised money to fund a Nicaraguan co-operative to make the gigantona.
She said: “It is part of a long cultural tradition in Central America. The woman is big and powerful and we thought it would be a wonderful idea to have a gigantona made in Suffragette colours.
“Milagros has come to speak about the position of women in Nicaragua.
“It is a very male dominated society and women have few rights and many of them are subjected to violence.”
Gary Biggam, 51, who watched the parade during a visit to Oxford from Shropshire, said: “It was very good. Nice and noisy. It’s nice to see some colours and lots of kids involved.”
Oxford International Women’s Festival is funded by The Big Lottery Fund, Oxfordshire Community Grassroots Grants, Oxfam and private donors.
The programme of events is designed to educate, entertain, enrich and celebrate women’s achievements.
For more details, visit oxfordwomen.co.uk
More News stories
Members of Sol Samba dance in the street
The gigantona
Individual Voluntary Arrangement help and Advice | Stay with Prague Hotels | Visit Spain with Barcelona Hotels | 70% off Designer Glasses at Posh Eyes
Local Advertisers
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
DanOxford, Oxford says...
6:59pm Mon 2 Mar 09
Women now do better than men at every level of education and the pay gap that remains reflects the career gaps most women take for having children and raising a family- not 'discrimination'.
All this money, effort and energy would be FAR better at helping, promoting and - if we really have to- 'celebrating' local communities, which consist of men, women, the young, the old, white, black, somewhere in between, straight, gay, Christian, Muslim, etc etc etc.
Hopefuly the end of NuLabour will also see an end to giving pots of money away to people on the basis that they feel 'discriminated' against for being in a 'minority'- thus rewarding people for not integrating but regarding themselves in the light of one small aspect of their identity.
The most disadvantaged group in British Society is in fact white working class boys- but I don't think we'll be seeing a festival to 'celebrate' them any time soon.