Men not allowed!

Gul Panag and Shruti Seth have been working on a tight schedule. With just a day to go for Festivelle, the duo is working round the clock to promote its two-day music, art, comedy and performance event, which is a strictly ‘women’s only’ affair.

Possibly the first event curated by women and for women only, the thought came about when Shruti attended an arts festival in Goa earlier this year. “Some men in the audience kept ogling at a woman performer at the event. It made me cringe,” says the VJ and film actress, who then decided to create an event that will ‘let women be themselves’. Elucidates Shruti, “I wondered, why not create an event that took away all the stress, and one that simply allowed women to be whoever they wanted to be at that moment — no judgement made and no questions asked. We empower each other, but once men get thrown in, we tend to get competitive. Why not create a platform that helps us build each other? Women have traditionally always taken second stage to a man but Festivelle puts them in the spotlight.”

When she bounced the idea off to Gul Panag, who has been challenging gender stereotypes with her choice of mean machines (she’s a biker and pilot), it took no effort to get her on board. “Despite all the noise about equal opportunity, we don’t see enough women in the performing arts space. We wanted to create a platform where we could have women artists headline the events — be it authors, thought leaders or influencers” adds Gul.

Hence, Festivelle  will see stalls by female fashion entrepreneurs, acts by female artistes and panel discussions on some salacious themes moderated by strong feminine voices (How is ‘Real Orgasms Are Our Birthright And We Shall Have Them, for starters?) Neeti Palta, Anu Menon, Radhika Vaz, Paromita Vohra, Pooja Bedi, Malini Agarwal are some of the names that will grace the event.

Gul however, isn’t a big fan of the term, panel discussion. “These are meant to be ‘free-flowing chats’ as the whole idea is to get the audience to participate and learn from each other,” says Gul who is particularly looking forward to the session called It’s Good To Be A Bad Mom.

So how did one come up with the themes for these discussions? “The topics were crowd-sourced via social media and common issues that we feel need addressal in our daily lives. All credit of putting these sessions together goes to Kiran Manral and Shunali Khullar Shroff who have curated these and strung together a bunch of uber talented women,” informs Gul.

So if you’re looking to have fun with your gal pals on the weekend, head to Festivelle, urges Shruti. “Who doesn’t need their girlfriends? Friendships with your besties are timeless and, in today’s fast paced world where we claim to have little or no time with them, is exactly when we need them the most! We understand each other, we help each other through bad times and celebrate successes selflessly. Girlfriends are simply forever and hence a women’s only event has more credence now than ever before.”

‘Must attend’ chats:
17 December:
12 pm: Lessons We Can Learn From Kim Kardashian — Miss Malini and Gul Panag
1.15 pm: We are our Hormones — Shital Sabharwal and Sonali Gupta
2.30 pm: It's Good To Be A Bad Mom  — Shrishti Arya, Mini Mathur, Lalita Iyer and Pooja Bedi

Sonali Bendre

18 December:
11.30: am Real Orgasms Are Our Birthright And We Shall Have Them — Paromita Vohra, Radhika Vaz, Sharmishtha Ray and Jaya Misra        
12.30 pm: Why Every Woman Should Have A Secret Stash —Fatima Karan and divorce lawyer Vandana Shah
5.45 pm: Get Fit, Woman— Sonali Bendre, Pooja Makhija and Eefa Shroff

Men gatecrashing the party:
Performances by singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad
Harpist Nush Lewis
Hindi pop-rock band Ankur Tewari and The Ghalat Family