WOW GLADSTONE 2025

Gladstone Events & Conference Centre this 17 & 18 October.  Join us this October in Gladstone as we celebrate the women of the region with a jam packed program of all your wow favourites, including:  Panel conversations informed by our local community consultation process, WOW Bites where you get to hear from everyday hero’s, workshops, WOW Marketplace, Healing Space where you can chill out and do some weaving; and an amazing line-up of performances and visual arts across the program. 

Highlights include:  Our Place, an exhibition of local artists at the Blue Mirror Gallery, the WOW Comedy Gala hosted by comedian Mandy Nolan and featuring:  Ting Lim, Alexandra Hudson, Janty Blair, Bron Lewis and Jackie Loeb. 

There are a lots of ways you can get involved: 

OUR PLACE

COMEDY GALA

Saturday 18 October 9am

WOW Gladstone Festival is proudly Supported by 

The brightest, boldest and baddest babes of comedy come together to present a knock out show of satirical mirth and systemic change, breakdowns and breastmilk, love, laughter and lament!

There's a fire in the belly of the women comedians headlining this year, with the musical stylings of International mega star Jackie Loeb, comedy mum on a mission Bron Lewis, the wild sass of Butchulla, Mununjhali and Woppaburra woman Janty Blair, the rising star of Singaporean born Ting Lim, and the powerhouse of Alexandra Hudson, centring disability on stage to use comedy to create meaningful change and MC, Mum of 5, social activist and bloody good sort Mandy Nolan.

These are women from the margins of every neighborhood, coming to the table, not to set it with dinner, but set it on fire! Who knows, while old men seem hellbent on taking us to war, maybe Funny Women will save the World! 

WOW Gladstone Festival

Join us at on Saturday 18 October at the GECC for the full day as we celebrate the women of the region with a jam packed program of all your wow favourites, including:  Panel conversations informed by our local community consultation process, WOW Bites where you get to hear from everyday hero’s, workshops, WOW Marketplace, WOW Healing Space where you can chill out and do some weaving;  and an amazing line-up of performances and visual arts across the program. 

women weaving water

Workshops, Installation and festival weaving workshop 

For centuries throughout the world, women have excelled at using their hands to make things using whatever materials they could find.  This includes weaving, which is just one of many ancient crafts that have developed, and continued to hold interest in spite of today’s trends of fast fashion and consumer driven lifestyles. Weaving allows you to slow down and to listen and talk with others, promoting friendship, support and a sharing of knowledge.   

Led by award winning local artist, Christine Holden, who has been creating unique hand-woven art works and public installations for several years and is well known for her fibre works made from a unique blend of marine debris and recycled materials found and foraged.   Her ‘ethical art’ reflects how important it is to look after our planet and explores the possibilities of how something that most people see as rubbish can be turned into something of aesthetic beauty.   

Five half-day workshops (8am – 12noon) will take place in the run up to the Festivals at the Blue Mirror Galler.  Workshop participants will be deconstructing marine rope fibres, attaching ghost netting to crab pot frames, and creating marine life such as corals, fish, sting rays, turtles and jellyfish in an underwater reef scene that can be added to by the public throughout the event.   

If you would like to participate in the workshops, please register your interest.  Deadline for submissions.

OUR PLACE

MARKETPLACE

WOW BITES

Accommodation  

There is a wide range of accommodation in and around Gladstone, the full range can be viewed here. 

 WOW Special Rates 

The following properties are offering special discounts for WOW Gladstone ticket holders: 

• The Gladstone Hotel  

• Central Apartment Group 

• Mantra Hotel – owned by Yaralla Sports Club 

• Gladstone Peppers – owned by Yaralla Sports Club  

TICKETING

Our Place is an exhibition of female and female-identifying artists from across the Gladstone region, presented in partnership with the Blue Mirror Gallery from 18 October – end November.  

WOW - Women of the World Gladstone is an opportunity to celebrate the rich and diverse creative practice of women and non-binary artists from the Gladstone Region and we are delighted to partner with The Blue Mirror Gallery for an exhibition of work between 18 October and end of November. Entitled simply ‘Our Place’ this exhibition will respond to the places, issues, and people important to the community today.   

 You are invited to submit work (in any medium) which responds to the changing cultural, social, economic, and natural environment of the Region reflected through the work and lives of women and non-binary, presenting a true sense of ‘Place’. The exhibition is designed to resonate with both local, statewide, and global audiences through the international WOW network. 

Calling all artists in the Gladstone region – if you would like to be part of this exhibition fill in the EOI form – Deadline 30 Sept 

Every WOW festival worldwide includes WOW Bites sessions.   These are short talks and stories, and sometimes performances, on a very wide range of subjects from the serious to the frivolous, delivered by all sorts of people, occasionally famous, but often everyday heroes.    WOW Bites may have a feminist theme, but many will just be about amazing things women have done, fears conquered, lives changed.  They are designed to engage and inspire audiences in all sorts of areas – new life insights, information, ideas, and ways of thinking.  Doing a WOW Bite can be a huge moment for some women and girls – the first time they have told their story in a public forum.    

 If you would like to present or nominate someone to present a WOW Bite, complete the form.  Deadline for submissions is tbc 

LOCAL PERFORMANCES

TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION

WOW Bus to Gladstone

The WOW Bus is back on the road!  Join us on Turia, the WOW Bus to Gladstone and sit back and relax with around 40 other passengers all headed for the WOW Gladstone Festival.   Turia is a 53-seater Scania coach with seatbelts, air-conditioning, toilet facilities and a friendly female driver and has already transported 100+ women to WOW Charleville, WOW Longreach and WOW Biloela.   
 
The coach is named to honour Turia Pitt who is living proof that, with the right mindset, anything is possible. Caught in a grass fire while competing in a 100km ultramarathon in 2011, Turia suffered full thickness burns to 65% of her body.  But surviving is the least of her achievements.  One of Australia's most admired and widely recognised people, Turia has gone on to become a bestselling author, a two-time Ironman and a humanitarian - raising well over a million dollars for "not-for-profit Interplast". 

Fri 17th October 7pm
Gladstone Entertainment Convention Centre

GLADSTONE ANGRY WOMEN’S CHOIR

The Gladstone Angry Women’s Choir will be formed through a community call-out and workshop process under the direction of Choir Master, Ruth Ghee;  which will see the newly formed Choir select, arrange and rehearse the repertoire; write a new choir song in collaboration with an emerging female composer and Danielle O’Keefe of The House That Dan Built; and perform alongside Unladylike Big Band, Queensland’s only all-female big big band at the WOW Gladstone on the 17th & 18th October 2025. 

 Calling all budding singers - If you would like to be part of the Choir, fill out the EOI form.

Across the Festival will be a range of performances, including free entertainment in the WOW Marketplace.  We are looking for expressions of interest from musicians, poets, and other cultural performers from the Gladstone region to include in the program.  To register your interest, please provide a brief description of your performance, artist bio, links to previous performances.   

WOW Gladstone Turia Package $190 

Includes:

• Return coach travel Brisbane to Gladstone  

• WOW Gladstone Festival Pass* 

• WOW Goodie Bag 

• Fri 17th Oct 5pm ‘Our Place’ exhibition opening at the Blue Mirror Gallery – transfer included 

• Fri 17th Oct 7pm Comedy Show at the Gladstone Entertainment Convention Centre (GECC)
  hosted by Mandy Nolan and featuring a diverse line-up of Australia female
  comedians.

• Sat 18th Oct 8am Full festival program until 7pm 

*WOW Gladstone Festival Pass Includes: