Menstruation and menopause are the subjects of a brand new festival that launches on 3 October 2025. It features an international line up of pioneering speakers calling on the power of art, design and storytelling to improve the lives of millions of people with wombs.
The Bloody Beautiful movement started as a popular local Dutch initiative in 2022 to normalise conversations about menstruation and menopause. In the past 3 years it has grown into an international movement with events in the Netherlands, Japan, and Hong Kong. It was created by affect lab and has reached more than half a million people, working with 120 partners, including top international experts to reimagine the future of women’s health.
Speakers from the UK include:
Monica Lennon - Parliamentarian who helped make Scotland the first country in the world with universal free access to menstrual products.
Dr Louise Newson - British medic who kickstarted the menopause revolution.
More than 1.8 billion people bleed every month. Women, but also trans men and non-binary people with a uterus have periods. It’s one of the most regular biological occurrences in the world, yet in society the subject is still surrounded by stigma and taboo. The consequences of this stigma are farreaching for more than half of the planet’s population: less than 1% of global research budgets are invested into understanding conditions such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) cervical cancer and endometriosis, amongst others.
The Bloody Beautiful Festival challenges this inequality with a full day programme of talks and discussions with frontrunners on design, art, research and technological developments in women’s health.
Join the Bloody Beautiful Festival on 3 October at Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. Find out more and get your tickets on the affect lab.