Deuje babe Festival

The Deuje babe Festival was set up by C.M.A.K. Cerkno in 2013 as a way to commemorate the International Women's Day. As such, it runs a programme that aims to forefront the work and position of women in society, presenting their artistic and cultural endeavours and promoting gender equality and feminist standpoints. Of a similar nature is also the Ljubljana based International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns, which occasionally acts as a co-producer and takes place at roughly the same time.

The name of the festival is derived from a local archaeological site, where – so goes local folklore – wild hags (deuje babe) used to live. Besides C.M.A.K., the festival sometimes takes place also at the Film Theatre Idrija and some other venues in the region.

The Deuje babe Festival poster, 2017 edition

Programme

The programme is comprised of painting and photography exhibitions (presenting artists like the photographer Nada Žgank, painter Petra Gorenc and the Vstajniške socialne delavke, i.e. Uprising Social Workers collective), talks with prominent female individuals, story telling events, film screenings (with works like 'Bande de filles' by Céline Sciamma and 'Like Rats Leaving a Sinking Ship' by Vika Kirchenbauer) and concerts. The music is often touching upon the coordinates of punk rock, with some of the invited bands being ?Alos (IT), R.Y.F. (IT), Žen (HR), Tús Nua (HR), Sequenzsiaz (DE), Aivery (AT) and Le Toy (AT). This programme used to be done in collaboration with the Austrian collective Grrrls Night Out.