Sorry chaps, but this is one festival that really isn’t for you

THERE will be basket-weaving, feminist debates and some distinctly unusual practices suitable only for women – so it is little wonder men are not welcome.

Women Fest, the latest event on the summer festival circuit, bills itself as the country’s first ‘all-women radical participation festival’ celebrating the ‘power and magic’ of womanhood.

Organiser Tiana Jacout, 30, said her inspiration partly came from her mother, a Greenham Common anti-nuclear protester in the 1980s.

She added the festival aims to give women space, without men, to share experiences and ideas. All women are welcome, including pre- and post-operative transgender women.

‘We don’t mind what you wear, who you fancy, or where you’re from, as long as you identify as a woman, then this festival is for you,’ an advert for the event says. Arenas will include the ‘expression stage’, open to anyone wishing to perform, and a ‘creativity tent’ where festival-goers can run workshops in skills such as basket weaving and cloth making.

A ‘women circle’ area will invite guests to share stories, songs and prayers, while a space called the ‘Womyn Rising Tent’ will be set aside for ‘healing and learning’.

The ‘sacred womb’ tent will let women contemplate modern feminism and ‘delve into themselves... to learn and love through discussions and workshops’.

Miss Jacout hopes to create a new kind of festival, telling The Observer: ‘The festival will celebrate women’s creativity and potential.

‘It will open our minds and help us tackle the everyday battles we may face with the strength of the sisterhood behind us.’

Some 400 tickets costing £225 each have gone on sale for the four-day festival, which will be on a farm outside Frome, Somerset, next month.

‘Strength of the sisterhood’