FIRSTBORN GIRL FESTIVAL #13 (currently)

Over the past 13 years, our organization has been dedicated to developing and producing the FIRSTBORN GIRL FESTIVAL, the first and only feminist festival in North Macedonia and a vital cultural platform that amplifies women’s contributions to society. By foregrounding women and feminist perspectives in the arts, an area still overwhelmingly dominated by men, the festival not only addresses gender imbalance, but also nurtures dialogue and solidarity among marginalized communities, independent artists, cultural workers, civil society actors, and institutions. Through these interactions, the festival creates space for mutual understanding, transformative exchange, and new models of collaboration.

What began as a short, week-long annual event has organically grown into a year-round cultural programme, reflecting increasing public interest, diverse audience needs, and the festival’s rising recognition. Expanding beyond a single festival week has enabled us to design a more versatile programme, offer continuous engagement opportunities for artists and audiences, prevent staff burnout, and ultimately contribute to building a more sustainable and inclusive cultural ecosystem. This evolution also opens room for experimentation, deeper artistic processes, and more meaningful audience development.

Our work extends beyond festival curation to the production of original, interdisciplinary cultural content. Through residencies, workshops, laboratories, and collaborative productions, we provide space for local and international women artists to jointly develop contemporary feminist performance projects. These initiatives address urgent themes such as women’s underrepresentation in artistic canons, the absence of political theatre that speaks to feminist struggles, and the precarious conditions of independent cultural work. Grounded in feminist values: solidarity, co-learning, care, and cooperation, our activities foster long-term professional development and contribute to reshaping cultural narratives and practices from a feminist perspective.

The diversification of our programme reflects the evolving interests and expertise of our three founders, who stood as organisers for many years and now serve as Program Coordinators and have cultivated a dynamic community and strong public presence. This growth has led us to expand into interdisciplinary research, publishing, archiving, curating, and informal education, implemented both within and beyond the festival framework. Over the years, what began as a response to structural injustice has developed into a rich ecosystem of feminist cultural production.

One Program Coordinator, an actress and lecturer at the Faculty of Drama Arts, initiated the REHEARSING FEMINIST FUTURES platform to address gender inequities in theatre and open space for alternative dramaturgies. What started as a dialogue has grown into a platform offering workshops, lectures, and an artist-in-residence programme, whose results are presented at the festival. Another Program Coordinator leads our publishing initiative VAGINA DENTATA, dedicated to translating, publishing, and promoting feminist literature absent from the local cultural landscape. The platform aims to democratize knowledge through printed and digital editions, multi-language accessibility, and an online feminist archive. Our third Program Coordinator focuses on exhibition-making and curatorial practices that empower emerging artists and curators, strengthening feminist approaches within the independent cultural scene.

The festival also embraces film and music as key storytelling forms. Our film programme is curated by invited collaborators or our own team, bringing a range of feminist voices and visual narratives to the screen. The music programme takes different shapes each year: from a DJ school that empowers women behind the decks to stages, showcasing women musicians in partnership with leading music festivals.

The FIRSTBORN GIRL FESTIVAL today stands as an inclusive, innovative, and safe cultural space for youth, women, and marginalized communities, one that supports artistic freedom, nurtures critical thinking, and encourages personal and collective empowerment. Our long-term commitment is to cultivate a feminist cultural milieu where solidarity, creativity, and social justice shape not only artistic expression, but also the cultural future of our society.