The WOW festival celebrates women, girls and non-binary people and will feature a series of events, talks, workshops, and performances.
Having launched back in 2010, WOW festivals have taken place in more than 30 locations across 6 different continents, reaching more than three million people to date.
This is the first WOW festival to take place in Rotherham and will be held over the weekend of Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 July 2022 in the town’s Clifton Park.
The two day festival will celebrate community, culture, and entrepreneurialism with artists local, national and international taking part in the event. Aiming to tackle the subjects that matter most to women, girls and non-binary people, the festival is open to people from all walks of life, however they identify.
Image: WOW Rotherham
The weekend’s main stage will kick off with a welcome address from WOW Festival organisers from across the globe including founder Jude Kelly and entrepreneur Dame Julie Kenny.
The welcome will be followed by WOW Big Ideas, a platform for short talks about pressing conversations and important ideas for change. Speakers will include award-winning cultural producer and freelance marketer Annalisa Toccara, campaigners and activists The 3 Hijabis who are calling for racists to be banned for life from all football matches in England and senior critical care nurse Charmaine Mutsago.
Image: WOW Rotherham
And that is only the start of it, the entire weekend will be jam-packed with thought provoking, important conversations and workshops for you to fully immerse yourself in.
Not only that but there will also be plenty of opportunities for you to kick back and relax, WOW Rotherham will be hosting a diverse marketplace filled with female makers and organisations, featuring a number of stalls selling hand-crafted gifts, a clothes swap stall and many more. There will also be a food and drink area to keep you refreshed throughout the weekend.
Image: WOW Rotherham
Jude Kelly CBE, CEO and Founder of The WOW Foundation said: “WOW Rotherham is going to be a wonderful and joyful celebration of the women and girls whose stories, achievements and resilience can help build a new chapter in the history of the town."
"The WOW local producers are using their huge energy to build an equal, just and safe world where the women, girls, trans and non-binary communities of Rotherham can flourish.”
In honour of National Chocolate Week, two big brands are joining forces.
Fancy a freebie? Silly question, of course you do.
Tony’s Chocolonely and Yorkshire Tea have joined forces for National Chocolate Week to ask Brits to declare themselves a ‘Melt’...yes, really.
It comes after the brands discovering a new Gen Z dunking trend, with research finding that 80% of 18–24-year-olds say chocolate is their preferred tea-dunking treat.
To understand why the perculiar pairing has become so popular, the brands recruited Associate Professor of Psychobiology, Dr Lorenzo Stafford, to investigate what happens when tea and chocolate come together.
Associate Professor, Dr Lorenzo Stafford said: "It's fascinating to see how much thought Brits put into what makes a great dunk. Flavour, texture and temperature all shape how we experience food, and the combination of hot tea with melting chocolate creates a particularly enjoyable sensory experience.
"When it comes to dunking, tea and chocolate have great chemistry so it’s no surprise young people have embraced it."
If you want to try it out for yourself, then you can for free - but there is one catch.
From Monday 19 to Friday 23 October, anyone who walks into one of Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds and says ‘I'm a Melt’ will get a free mug of Yorkshire Tea and bar of Tony's Chocolonely.
Not only that, but the first 100 customers will also get a limited-edition ‘Melt’ cap.
Yorkshire Tea & Tony’s Chocolonely said of the partnership, “Brits love their tea and their chocolate and now the science shows why. This National Chocolate Week, we’re inviting everyone to give it a go, embrace their inner Melt and discover just how well chunky chocolate and a proper brew can work together.”
Leeds Bradford Airport strikes will NOT go ahead following ‘late offer’ over pay
Clementine Hall
This weekend's strikes at Leeds Bradford Airport have been cancelled.
Around 130 workers were set to walk out this weekend, Unite said, but this has been suspended to allow air traffic controllers to consider a new pay offer.
The Unite members planning on to go on strike were a mixture of air traffic control workers, customer experience staff, security staff and cleaners.
The workers involved in the dispute had recently come out of a four-year pay deal, with some of the departments having fallen behind other airports in equivalent roles.
Pay talks have been happening since December 2025, with the airport's formal offer not going far enough to address the lack of pay parity which led to the decision to strike.
However, as of yesterday 15 October, the workers have been given new pay offers from the airport and the strikes will not take place to allow a ballot on the offers.
Air traffic controllers and hourly paid staff are being balloted separately on their respective offers.
Unite regional officer Neil Whitaker said: "After receiving offers from Leeds Bradford Airport, we have suspended this week’s strike action in good faith to allow members to vote on pay deals.”
In a statement, Leeds Bradford Airport said: "While the ballot process continues with certain members of our frontline colleagues, we remain hopeful that a positive outcome can be achieved and that an agreement can be reached which works for everyone involved.
"Regardless of the outcome of this ballot, LBA has a robust contingency plan in place and will be operating as normal this weekend.
"Our focus remains on supporting a smooth and reliable experience for customers while maintaining safe and efficient airport operations."
Clementine Hall -
7th July 2022 
