Welcome to the online home of our Mayven Festival – a multi-season extravaganza of comedy, cabaret, festivity and feminism, storytelling and silliness!
Our first Mayven Festival in Summer 2022 in Cornwall celebrated the fact that Scary Little Girls had been going strong for 20 years.
With subsequent festivals, we’re now celebrating the power of women in their midlife, bringing top quality arts to – and sometimes right over! – the doorsteps of communities all over Cornwall and beyond.
We are showcasing the work of over 100 female creatives, primarily in venues across Cornwall including Hall for Cornwall, The Poly, St Agnes Library, The Old Bakery, The Fish Factory, Minack Theatre, The Redruth Drapery, Penlee Park Theatre and more. In September 2023, we went international and took our Mayven Festival across the pond to San Francisco!
Explore the shows and venues below, meet the artists and our partners, and keep an eye on upcoming shows!
Let us introduce the Mayven. A sometimes overlooked stage in a woman’s life, she comes after Maiden and Mother, and is described by some as containing ‘the inherent value and power of midlife’. The Mayven is something a woman can ascend into after turning 40 and reside in for as long as she wants until she decides to Crone.
She combines a worldly knowledge, wisdom and expertise with an energy and vibrance that make her magnetic, sexy and powerful. She is independent from guardians and free of dependants, she can sow wild oats and heal wounds from her past. She is a creature of catalyst and challenge, distillation and divinity. Both powerful and authentic, a Mayven knows her worth and who she is and isn’t afraid to show it and receive respect. She is fierce, guided by her intuition and relying on it, as do others, for she can see what is important and what’s, frankly, bullshit.
She’s in touch with and recognised for her inner medicine and magic. In this Festival, we are harnessing, promoting and celebrating the Mayven, and taking inspiration from what she represents to create a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational feminist arts festival together with co-producers Hall for Cornwall.
Starting in November 2024, we’ll be bringing the work delivered in and developed with audiences from Cornwall and San Francisco to the UK capital. Making the Bread and Roses Theatre our home, we’ll be creating space for feminist cultural community.
Keep an eye on our event pages and socials for more info Twitter/X Facebook Instagram!
Our series of Mayven Festival events will showcase the work of over 100 female creatives – artists, performers, writers, directors and producers
Solstice Stories is a podcast showcasing specially commissioned stories about Cornish heroines of witchery and myth. These stories were performed from the stage, balcony and backstage hidey-holes of Cornwall’s most magical venue, the Minack Theatre on the Winter Solstice 2022 and they have now been recorded so you can enjoy them from the comfort of your cosy home.
Solstice Stories is presented by Rebecca Mordan and is a Scary Little Girls production, supported by FEAST and People’s Postcode Lottery.
Our series of Mayven Festival events will showcase the work of over 100 female creatives – artists, performers, writers, directors and producers.
Rebecca Mordan
[email protected]
Adrian Walker
[email protected]
Lauren Webb
Director, Roscoe Communications
[email protected]
