This post was originally published as a press release on 7 October 2020.

7 October 2020 – To celebrate the 35th anniversary of its founding in 1985, AWARE will hold a five-day festival called AWAREFest, featuring online panels, workshops and interactive programmes centred on the fight for gender equality in Singapore.

The festival announcement comes in the wake of the government’s plan for a wide-ranging national review of gender equality. 

AWAREFest will kick off on Wednesday, 25 November—International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women—and draw to a close on Sunday, 29 November. Its inaugural theme is “Love + Rage”. 

“AWAREFest is an occasion for us to honour the founding mothers who broke new ground for women over decades, and to embrace the new generation bringing feminism into the future,” said Corinna Lim, AWARE’s Executive Director. “Taken together, the story of AWARE is a uniquely Singaporean story of solidarity and community, indignation and fiery passion. Hence the festival theme, Love + Rage—which channels both the rich history of the local women’s movement, and the singular mood of this present time.”

For opening night, AWAREFest will hold The Great Debate, whereby teams of well-known local thinkers and activists will duke it out over the motion “Is love or rage a better fuel for justice?” Other programme highlights include:

• Women in Politics: a conversation between four women who ran for office in GE2020
• #MeToo in Asia: an international panel of activists fighting against sexual violence around the region
• Intersectionality Quiz Night: a fun, fast-paced trivia challenge covering the intersection of gender and issues such as income inequality, sexual orientation and disability

Saturday, 28 November will also see the AWAREHouse Party—a social distancing-appropriate twist on AWARE’s annual charity ball. This year, guests will gather at each other’s houses for intimate hosted parties, united by live-streamed entertainment and a special catered menu. The night’s programming will feature the 2020 AWARE Awards, honouring recent achievements in gender equality; a “Herstory” retrospective of major AWARE milestones; and the return of the beloved Alamak Awards, given to the year’s most cringeworthy sexist moments.

AWAREFest is supported by the U.S. Embassy Singapore. Proceeds from the festival will go towards AWARE’s new NextGen fund, which aims to nurture a new cohort of changemakers in Singapore, and ensure that women and girls continue to receive the assistance and support they need to thrive. The fund will enable the maintenance and expansion of AWARE’s services, and sustain AWARE’s multi-faceted research on such pressing issues as caregiving, workplace harassment and migrant rights.

Said Ms Lim: “NextGen will give us the opportunity to step up our strategic advocacy efforts during this pivotal moment of national interest in gender equality, sparked by the government’s upcoming White Paper. The time for concerted action is now. We’re thankful to all who contribute to and champion this cause, in ways big and small.” 

Full details on the AWAREFest programme will be released on 14 October at aware.org.sg/awarefest. Tickets go on sale to the public on 16 October via Sistic, both for individual events and in the form of a multi-event festival pass.