WAMFest Felixstowe: A fanfare finale for 2023
WAMFest, the popular Felixstowe-based celebration of women in the arts, will be back in October with a packed agenda of music, dance, literature and much more.For the second time this year, WAMFest will provide a platform to showcase the exceptional talents of local artists across three venues in the town – @Inc in Hamilton Road, Harvest House and the Grosvenor pub.
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WAMFest will kick off on Friday, October 13 with an evening of music @Inc before a day-long celebration on Saturday.
The Saturday morning session will be in the town centre and promises fun and frolics with a Samba band, musicians, and the chance to have a go at Flamenco dancing and join an art workshop.
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The action will then shift to Harvest House where there will be sessions with established and emerging authors and female voices will fill the beautiful Palm Court.
Saturday night will see WAMFest take over The Grosvenor pub with an exciting line up of musicians including some WAMfest favourites alongside women of all ages supporting the event for the first time.
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Visual artists and makers will also be represented with an art bazaar at Harvest House and a month-long exhibition at Illuminate at Brightwell Barns.
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Organiser Laura Locke said she was thrilled that so many talented artists have come forward to be a part of the festival and showcase female talent.
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“We are excited to be back; it is always such a pleasure to bring women together to celebrate their creativity and provide top quality entertainment right here in Felixstowe.
“Our aim has always been to build a sustainable, annual event promoting equality and diversity and while the final line of up artists is yet to be confirmed, we can promise a wonderful showcase of female talent.
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“We are very grateful to Felixstowe Town Council and the Port Community Fund for their support and look forward to delivering an exciting festival for everyone.”
Full details of the line-up are here
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Early bird tickets can be purchased here!
www.ticketsource.co.uk/felixstowefestivalevents
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MEET THE TEAM
LAURA LOCKE
Laura Locke has worked in tourism and the media, and has been a course leader and senior lecturer in Events and Tourism Management at the University of Suffolk for over 20 years. She now works part-time and enjoys being a radio presenter for Felixstowe Radio.
Ever passionate about women’s issues and the arts, she worked with her students of event management to create women’s events at the University. On taking a break from full time work, she decided to run women’s networking events in Felixstowe – Cocktails and Conversations. From that sprung the idea of an International Women’s Day Celebration of women in art and music. LAura is a presenter for Felixstowe Radio and works for Menta as a Community Coo-ordinator at @inc Felixstowe
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Laura is excited that WAMfest no 4 is coming up in October 2023 and is thinking about 2024!
CATALINA CARVAJAL
Colombian illustrator and visual artist based in Suffolk, England.
Catalina works in digital and mixed media and enjoys drawing objects, plants, landscapes, animals and anthropomorphic figures.
Catalina has painted our wonderful murals opposite The Orwell Hotel and has produced all of our marketing material! She is an ultimate WAM Women!
To find out more about Catalina: www.catalinacarvajal.co.uk
SHELINE GLEDHILL
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Sheline joins the WAMfest crew for their second year to help look after the website and social media.
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She has been a journalist for most of her career and spent 12 happy years at the East Anglian Daily Times where she edited their monthly business magazine.
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More recently she worked at Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, Felixstowe BID and Visit Felixstowe.
MIKAELA RACKHAM
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Mikaela is a local photographic artist who has recently launched her own business, Illuminate, at Brightwell Barns in Suffolk.
After 8 years in teaching and 10 years running a photography business part time, Mikaela has followed her dream to create a space for all to learn, develop and experiment with their creative mediums.
Mikaela developed the WAM website and hosts the exhibitions at 142 Gallery in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, she also snaps away as our photographer and will be hosting an all woman exhibition Illuminate in October as part of WAMfest!
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To find out more about Mikaela: https://www.illuminatestudio.co.uk
ALLISON BOGGIS
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I moved to Felixstowe with my young family 26 years ago and we totally fell in love with this beautiful part of Suffolk.
Having retired from a career as an academic at the University of Suffolk and enjoying previous WAM events, I was so impressed by the passion and ethos of the organisation I was happy to volunteer my services and help out at various social events.
KATE WHITE
Kate decided to get involved with WAMfest 2023 having been an active participant and audience member in previous years! She thinks it's a great local festival to showcase local female talent and thinks that Laura brings out the best in everybody, and loves her enthusiasm and energy, so she was keen to get involved this year!
Kate helped to organise ‘Hachfest” (a 3 day festival in Hacheston near Woodbridge) which ran for several years back in the early 2010s and set up her own plant-based business The Greenhouse Cafe in Orwell Road, Felixstowe in 2018.
CHANDRA GROVER
Chandra is a local musician and arranger and teaches clarinet and piano from her home studio in Trimley. In addition to running two choirs and a clarinet group, she also sings with Stellar Acapella and plays clarinet in Essentially Swing.
Having performed at WAMfest in previous years with her choir Felixstowe Harmonies, she was so impressed by the passion and vitality of the organising team that she was keen to be involved to support such a wonderful and unique festival, celebrating and showcasing the wealth of talent we have in the area.
