Fertility Fest, the world’s first arts festival dedicated to the science of making babies and modern families, is now in its third year. This year’s edition runs from 23 April – 12 May at London’s Barbican with satellite festivals taking place at The Fertility Show and ESHRE Vienna - the biggest fertility patient and industry events in the world.
The festival was founded by author and fertility campaigner Jessica Hepburn (The Pursuit of Motherhood and 21 Miles) and theatre producer Gabby Vautier, who present two very different stories of IVF: Jessica went through 11 rounds of unsuccessful treatment; Gabby is the mother of 4-year-old IVF twin girls.
Actress MAXINE PEAKE (TV’s Shameless, Silk, Dinnerladies) will be starring in the stage production of Julia Leigh’s powerful IVF memoir Avalanche which is the centrepiece of Fertility Fest at the Barbican. Alongside this over 200 artists and fertility experts will come together with patients and the public to discuss a diverse range of topics including Trying To Conceive; Miscarriage; Premature Ovarian Failure; The Male Experience of Infertility; Egg Freezing; Donation; Surrogacy; Parenting After Successful IVF; There’s More To Life Than Children; The Queer Family; Solo Motherhood; Race, Religion and Reproduction.
This year, Pride Angel is delighted to be partnering with Fertility Fest on The Queer Family event on Wednesday 24th April at London’s Barbican (7pm – 9pm) and we have 10 tickets to give away to the first respondents.
Full details for the event can be see here: https://www.fertilityfest.com/queer-family-barbican
The event includes:
* Film-maker Emma Edwards presents her award-winning short film Altruistic which follows the journey of the first gay male couple to become legal parents through surrogacy in the UK.
* Best-selling ‘Human Book’ Dimple Devadas will be telling the remarkable story of her rainbow family made through the gift of sperm donation.
* Theatre-maker Stella Duffy and playwright Shelley Silas have been together for 28 years and been married four times – that’s how long it took the law to catch up. They didn’t have the family they dreamed of but are a family nonetheless.
* Cabaret artist Jamie Anderson and his band will be performing an extract from his new show about become a father for the first time as a gay HIV+ man.
The performances will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with fertility experts Carole Gilling Smith Medical Director of Agora Clinic in Brighton & Hove, and Franscesca Steyn, Head of Nursing at the Centre of Reproductive and Genetic Health – both leading voices in the industry on assisted conception within the LGBT community.
Chaired by James Mackenzie Blackman, Chief Executive of Scotland’s Eden Court Theatre and gay dad of two through adoption.
Full details and tickets see: https://www.fertilityfest.com