Get The Oxford Belles to the Fringe

Hi everyone! We are the Oxford Belles, Oxford’s original all-female a cappella group, made up of students from Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities. We were founded in 1995 to combat the male-dominated Oxford music scene and continue to promote female empowerment in our music today. This year, we want to do something special to mark the 100-year anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, but we need your help…

Our show: Women of Note
We have developed a 45-minute show of music that maps the development of feminism and female liberation over the past 100 years. From the suffrage movements that led to women gaining the right to vote, through the sexual liberation of women in the 1960s, to the modern representation in the media, our show is filled with stories of incredible women who came together to pave the way for gender equality and the music that represents them. Our aim is to educate as many people as possible about the history of feminism, particularly with regards to music, and we have secured a place to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from 12th-18th August to do just that. All the music in our show was originally written and performed by women and has been arranged by members of the group specifically for us.

We also want to immortalise this music by producing a 4-track CD to sell alongside our show.

For a taster of what to expect from our show, check out our viral music video released in March 2017 to celebrate International Women’s Day here. 

Outreach and charity
The main focus of our show is to celebrate how far we have come in terms of female liberation over the last 100 years. Through this we hope to educate but also empower young women and girls to keep fighting for equality for all women. We are going to be taking our show into schools in July, running workshops with children to get them thinking about feminism and gender equality.

 We also want to use this opportunity to give something back to an organisation that does so much for the education of young women. The Malala Fund was founded by Malala Yousafzai after she survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in Pakistan age 15. The Malala fund works in regions where most girls miss out on secondary education, and fights for every girl’s right to free, safe, quality education. Malala is now a first-year student with us at Oxford University, and she is very supportive of our show and what we are trying to achieve. We will be collecting money for The Malala Fund after each of our performances and will be donating any proceeds from sales of our CD.

 You can find more information about The Malala Fund here: www.malala.org 

The Costs
Going to the Edinburgh Fringe festival is expensive, and as we receive no external funding we need to raise all this money from donations and performances. The cost of our show breaks down as follows:

- Accommodation in Edinburgh: £2,750
- Travel: £325
- Venue: £4,725
- Marketing: £1,000
- CD: £2,200 
- Go Fund Me processing fees: £250

How can you help?
Any donation, however big or small, will go a huge way to helping us get to the Fringe. We would be extremely grateful for any amount you can give, but we also understand that this may not be something that everyone can do. Social media is a very powerful method of spreading the word about a campaign, so if you believe in what we are trying to do please share our page and tell your family and friends about us. We are also looking for contacts in schools and youth groups, so if you are involved in education and would like us to come and visit your school then please do get in touch.

Rewards
We want to thank you for your kind donations so will be offering a range of rewards - see the right-hand column for details.


Thank you so much for supporting our campaign!

Be sure to out our website here and follow us on Facebook ,Twitter  and Instagram to keep up to date with our campaign!