Ladies First
India’s 1st Street Art Festival for Women
Ladies First empowers women artists to revitalize art in communities and help move the needle for gender equity.
With each edition the idea is to have more women artists join us on the streets.
Festival Calender
Street Art
8 & 9 Mar – Goa
10 & 13 Mar – Mumbai
16 & 19 Mar – Gurugram
25 & 26 Mar – Dehradun
Street Art Workshops
19 Mar – Mumbai & Gurugram
To register for the workshop kindly fill up the form on this link here.
Help Us Organize Ladies First
Ladies First is an independently run festival organized by Wicked Broz and our awesome street art community in multiple cities.
We have limited funds and need additional support from individuals like you who are art lovers and dreamers like us.
We need money to guarantee our team to buy paints, brushes, spray cans, food for the artists and volunteers and other smaller expenses like have some branding printed or help setup a speaker system to pump up the volume at the fest.
- Donate Any Amount
Proposal for Brands
9-26 Mar, 2023
As we moved from city to city, the streets may have changed, the artworks were of course different but the vibes remained the same.
Ladies First street art festival 2023 was a resounding success after the hardships of the pandemic. In the 4 cities of Goa, Mumbai, Gurugram and Dehradun, women artists and volunteers poured out into the streets even in the scorching sun of March and showed solidarity with the cause. Women can paint the streets. Hell yeah!
Goa
In Goa, Jisha Madai aka Maad_eye single handedly was the force behind the fest. She procured permissions for her own wall, applied primer all by herself and was the solitary artist on Day 1, painting all by herself, her dreams of freedom. Seeing this ferocious warrior fight with the wall and caress it in places, help arrived slowly. At the end of the 2nd day, nearly 10 volunteers had turned up at different times and lend a hand in painting, photographing, getting refreshments and setting up the lights. Sunita aunty and her all women female crew in the Mermaid resort kitchen next to the wall, was ever ready with supplies of fresh veg thali and juices to keep the spirits high on Pernem road.
Mumbai
The Mumbai leg happened in Marol Art Village and the community there was hungry for something to happen for so long. 6 sites led by 6 artists popped up all over Marol and combined with the hip hop factor of Marol, the fest turned into a true celebration on the streets. Kesar Khinvarasa, Tanya Eden, Div Rodricks, Krantinaari, Kully Rehal and Aashna Mukhija were the stars of the show. (Click on their names to view their artworks on Instagram). Dream Marol, the citizens initiative to make Marol a better place teamed up with us for permissions and motivating the communities around the walls to get directly involved.
Gurugram
In Gurugram, this mantle was taken up by KalaGram, the cultural wing of the MCG. Thanks to them, we got permissions to once again paint at the Women’s Police Station in Sec 51. 9 female artists led by Shruti Taluja, Shikha Agarwal and Ritu teamed up under a single idea of ‘Feminine Energy’. They came up with a production that showcased different aspects of a women’s personality right from motherhood to wisdom to fierceness. Ramaa, Radhika Mahajan, Nandini, Madhu, Ashu and Prathma made their versions of this thought in 4 days.
Like other cities, here too we experienced visitors join in as volunteers and some demanded their own walls to paint their own concepts. One such volunteer, Pooja Trehan took things to the next level. After the fest on 15 April, she led a group of special children and their mothers to create another artwork on the same Women’s Police station wall. The spirit of the fest, personified.
View the ‘Feminine Energy’ artwork here.
Dehradun
By the time we reached Dehradun, the festival had achieved much of its objectives of celebrating women artists and involving communities. But the job was not done. One last wall remained and a special artwork by Beenu was painted by everyone from the Dehradun community. Mukesh, Baskar, Shubham, Ruchita, Shreya, Freak, Faisal and Zain. In just one day, we finished the mural of 2 grannies riding a bike, out into the night and coming across a Pink Panther? Check out this fun piece here.
Was it all easy going and fun? Of course, not. You don’t organize independent festivals like this without financial hardships and people going off on each other. But we overcame all that, just like we did in 2021 and before that in 2019. We will keep overcoming all that in the future too.
A big thanks to our paint and primary sponsors Berger Paints who turned up at the last moment and saved us in every way. Artikate for gifting awesome stuff to the artists. To all the individuals who stood up and contributed whatever they could to make this happen, a warm hug and wishing for you to join us in person the next time.
8-10 Mar, 2021
The 2021 edition around 8th March was focused solely around painting due to the Covid restrictions. Despite that, we managed to pull of quite a lot in three cities. More than anything else, it was a challenge to ourselves to keep hopes alive when morale all around was at its lowest ebb.
Mumbai
Ashwini Hiremath aka Krantinaari led the assault on the 5 story wall in Marol Art Village for the Mumbai edition. Assisted by an army of over 20 female artists and Wicked Broz community members, she managed to complete the wall in 5 days. To make women’s presence a natural part of the surrounding is the attempt of this artwork. It was the only wall painted in Mumbai and kind of the show stopper of the entire street art festival. A big applause once again to MRRWA for their sincere help for our activities in Marol.
Gurugram
In Gurugram, Sec 52, the mahila police thana was the venue. 7 women artists, Aanchal Gupta, Shruti Taluja, Shivanika Raghav, Kiran Dayal, Aditi Kapur, Saumya Shukla and Shikha Agarwal created 7 different original artworks lined up on the wall outside the police station. Apart from our team of volunteers even female constables joined in on the action at times. A great collaboration made possible thanks to Kalagram and our community leader Mr. Buzzinka.
Dehradun
In Dehradun, Mojartian aka Mukesh Negi, with the help of community members found a nice wall. With Yatagiri Bhavya, Monaal, Shreya and Shravya, we painted 3 different artworks inspired by Muhammed Sajid who likes to paint around the theme of exploring different sides of a womans life.
24-30 Mar, 2019
The phenomenon of Ladies First was first conceptualized in 2018 when we started feeling the need to for women artists to find more representation on the streets. We didn’t know what to do so we decided to do the best way to celebrate them that seemed possible – organize a street art festival – only for women.
For the inaugural version we had 7 powerful women artists paint walls and the citizens of Marol assist them. Anpu Varkey, Lena McCarthy, WomenPow, Shirin Shaikh, Ratna and Abigail Jensen turned up and set the place on fire with unique styles and unique vibes.
The fest was not just limited to walls. We had street art and graffiti workshops. Open mics. Talks by Sadhna Prasad, Artwhoring and Giggling Monkey. Graffiti walks in Marol. Waste collection drives. Art exhibition. Street art film screenings. Breaking cypher. In 7 days, Mumbai had woken up to a new possibility.
Stories From The Past
Experience the festival from the eyes of our team organizing it and the point of view of artists and volunteers.
- WB Magazine
- May 21, 2019
- WB Magazine
- March 25, 2021
- WB Magazine
- March 6, 2019
Voices Who Vibe
It was really meaningful for me to jump in with a whole crew of artists and organizers I didn’t know from literally across the world. The fest was a true lesson in art being a community builder and binder. People come together and share common goals of creating, and really beautiful moments happen large and small. I’m really grateful that I was included and treasure my memories in Marol.
It was through Wicked Broz, that I found my art family. I was that art kid who ALWAYS stayed at home, drawing by myself. The Ladies First Street Art fest, got me out of my comfort zone, introduced me to such brilliant people and artists and a very homely community that honestly, I'm so so grateful to be in! It's been such a rewarding experience being a part of this little happy team:)
My salutes to the power winthin each one of us... The power that protects, nurtures, gives meaning to every life. Happy Women's Day! Ps. Not every day I would appreciate my canvas being shared BUT with people here at Women Police Station I am honoured they wanted to give it a try. Thanks to the team for this thrilling opportunity 😊
A great community of people, sharing knowledge, experiences and opportunities. Providing great deal of value to all sorts of artists.
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