The Sydney Opera House today announced the first details for the next iteration of the annual All About Women (AAW) festival – and it looks like we’re in for a good one, friends! Marking the week of International Women’s Day, the centrepiece talks festival returns to platform inclusive ideas on gender, justice and equality – both in-person and online. In signature style, the 2024 edition of AAW is shaping up to be a vibrant forum for panels, conversations and workshops on the big ideas important to women, gender diverse people and their allies.
Offering a peek into the festival line-up, the first headlining events announced include a talk from Rebecca F. Kuang (she/her) – the author of the worldwide satirical sensation Yellowface – on diversity, cultural appropriation and cancel culture in commercial publishing (both through her own eyes and those of her latest protagonist Juniper “Song” Hayward.) If you haven’t already devoured Yellowface, it’s time to add it to your summer reading list. Written in a totally immersive first-person voice, this wildly popular novel grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.
Also on the lineup is the world famous classics scholar, feminist icon, and author of the recently released The Emperor of Rome, Mary Beard (she/her). She is perhaps the one woman who thinks about the Roman Empire more than any man on TikTok, and Beard will be talking about ancient misogyny, gossip, murder, age-old power, and what these issues mean for women today.
“We are thrilled to reveal the first events for All About Women 2024,” said Chip Rolley, the Head of Talks & Ideas at the Opera House. “It will be such an honour to host both Rebecca F. Kuang and Mary Beard, on their first speaking tours in Australia. We look forward to announcing our fierce and fearless co-curators and the full line-up in the new year, and can’t wait to welcome audiences back to the festival for its twelfth year in March.”
The twelfth edition of All About Women will take place on Sunday, March 10, 2024. In happy news for anyone who has ever rolled up to the Opera House slicked in glitter and sweat for the big day of progressive talks and ideas, you’ll be relieved to know that AAW will not fall on the same weekend as the Sydney Mardi Gras parade in 2024 – hurrah! (FYI, Mardi Gras has also revealed a huge future-forward program for 2024.)
AAW often operates as a compass that illuminates the biggest social conversations of the past year, and points towards where we’re heading next. Two panels that drew the biggest crowds at the festival in 2023 were Actually Autistic, a panel prompted by the rising awareness of how autism presents in women and non-binary people featuring Chloé Hayden; and an Australian exclusive conversation with Jennette McCurdy, who spoke about her hit memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died. Clementine Ford also marvellously ranted about the myth of the crazy cat lady. (You can check out our biggest takeaways from All About Women 2023 over here.) Meanwhile, we’ll have our eyes peeled for the next announcements for 2024.
The full details for All About Women 2024 will be announced on Tue Jan 16, 2024. Tickets start at $35. Insiders presale drop at 9am on Tue, Dec 5; What's On presale at 9am on Wed Dec 6; and General public on sale from 9am on Thu, Dec 7.