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To commemorate International Women's Day, which is held on 8 March, Madrid is hosting a new edition of the female creation festival, Ellas Crean. It is a cultural event organised by the Institute for Women and Equal Opportunities which is holding its 19th edition from 2 to 30 March 2023 with a full multidisciplinary programme that brings together references and new female figures from the world of film, literature, music, theatre and many other disciplines to fight together for political and social change.

The 2023 edition has called on four current creators from the visual and performing arts: Marisa González, Marina Vargas, María del Mar Suárez (La Chachi) and Jana Pacheco, who will provide their points of view on “the subversive” concept in today’s art. Women who promote cultural activities in rural areas will also be present, alongside other creators who have chosen small villages to develop their activity, such as Nuria Sebastián, Tamara Crespo and Pilar Ríus, or writers like Edurne Portela and Virginia Mendoza. From literature, film and art, there are more and more creators searching for inspiration and remembering these forgotten territories. This edition of Ellas Crean is devoted to these uninhabited areas of Spain, their memory and their future.

The festival has an extensive music, theatre and dance programme, with world premières, debates, poetry and performances. As usual, there will be consolidated artists (including national prizewinners), as well as up and coming artists.

There will be room for all sensitivities and musical styles in the musical section. Medieval music will be represented by one of the most prestigious ancient music groups, Egeria, which will perform its album devoted to Agatha. Contemporary music is another of the main features with the presence of two women whose work has obtained international awards and nominations: Sira Hernández with La Divina Comedia and Silvia Nogales with Seda. Tu deseo es el agua, will also be premièred, which combines contemporary music with poems by Pilar Martín Gila and Julieta Valero.

The most modern music will be represented by the trumpet player Alba Careta, one of the up and coming artists on the jazz scene in Spain, and Alfonso X el Sabio University will showcase its greatest promises. Rounding off the musical programme, there is the Conexión Buenos Aires-Madrid concert series, which will bring the best music to Casa de América with artists and composers like Zoe Gotusso, Barbarita Palacios, Daniela Horovitz, Hernán Reinaudo, Verónika Silva and César Angeleri.

The festival is also committed to dance whereby the presentation of the documentary Dies by the dancer and choreographer Muriel Romero at the Students’ Residence can be highlighted. Once more, the Dance in Museums programme will host the work of eight choreographers, including two National prizewinners, Dácil González, with the première of Mutable alongside Carmen Fumero in the halls of the Prado Museum and Olga Pericet, who will present Transmutar at the National Archaeological Museum. Júlia Godino and Alexa Moya, Babirusa Danza, Camille Hanson, Melania Olcina, Helena Martín and María del Mar Suárez (La Chachi) round off the dance programme.

The programme also includes sections devoted to theatre, literature, research, art and film, with the performance of Darme-darse-darnos by Lorena Wollfer, from the Vision and Presence 2023 cycle, and the Fictional Stages exhibition by Ana Esteve Reig.