A MESSAGE FROM
The Festival
Director
Hi, my name is Sharon of Social Gain, a for-purpose events business and I am so excited to share with you the evolution of the much-loved Dubbo Women's Festival.
I love days like International Women's Day for the way they invite us to pause and focus on what matters.
Our purpose is simple: to improve well-being where we live, work, and socialise through meaningful connection. This is at the heart of everything Social Gain delivers including the Orana Every Woman Festival.
OUR APPROACH
Fun, play and creativity are fundamental to the delivery of the Festival program.
Opportunities to create and the arts are more than entertainment — they are tools for belonging, wellbeing, and positive change. As is collaboration over competition, empowering one another, and encouraging self expression.
There are many incredible collaborators shaping this Festival, and I feel very fortunate to witness what becomes possible when good people come together with a shared purpose.
Our opening night performance, Inspired by Her, is a perfect example. Its layers, collaboration, and "only could happen here" vibe make it a truly special one-night-only event.
The Festival is co-created with women, community services, artists, businesses, and local leaders from across the Orana. Every event is designed to lift each other up and strengthen the networks that support women all year round.
When you attend, partner, or support the Festival, you're backing a Better Together approach that ripples out beyond Festival week into workplaces, families, community groups, and everyday regional life.
THE ENGINE ROOM
Social Gain is not your regular kind of event service.
Social Gain is more like a strategic engagement partner — connecting leaders, businesses, creatives, and communities to co-design experiences that meet real needs, strengthen identity, and amplify impact.
Through events, projects, and collaborations, we deliver in a style that's uniquely Social Gain: authentic, fabulous, and deeply human. Our work is collaborative, grounded in place, designed with care, and shaped by the communities we serve.
Our purpose is simple: to improve well-being where we live, work, and socialise through meaningful connection.
What We Offer
Event strategy, design and delivery.
Community engagement. Marketing for good. Purpose integration. Meaningful collaborations and win-win partnerships.
Creativity as Strategy
We work with the people in the room and the space between them, drawing insights across silos and differences — using arts and culture to make a difference in Dubbo and the Orana.
HOW IT BEGAN
Three women, a free day at the Cultural Centre, and the first Moment Lounge.
The festival began as the Dubbo Women's Festival — built by three women: Lorna Brennan, Joanne "Nurse Jo" Phillips, and me (Sharon Quill). A free day of care, information and connection at the Western Plains Cultural Centre, with panels on the health topics nobody was talking about, lunch under the trees, and the first Moment Lounge — created by Erifili Davis and supported by our first believers and sponsors, Charnie Tuckey and Rose Prout.
It grew the way good things grow out here: by trust.
By 2026 it had become the Orana Every Woman Festival — 520 women, nearly 1,000 attendances, 40 events across seven days, women travelling from 50km and further, a sold-out finale at Crossroads, and recognition in the NSW Parliament.
"I drove three hours. I'd do it again. There's nothing like this anywhere else in regional NSW — and it matters that it exists here, in Dubbo."
The sisterhood shaping this Festival
Sharon Quill
Festival Director · Social Gain
Joanne "Nurse Jo" Phillips
Co-founder · Women's health nurse
Charnie Tuckey
Holistic counsellor · Founding sponsor
Martine Beaumont
Psychotherapist · Season of Enough
Sophie Johnston
Researcher, Univ. of Sydney · Belonging
Milena Sallustio
Multidisciplinary artist · Nonna Mother Daughter
Nisaba Merriweather
Writer · Homecoming
Lorna Brennan
Co-founder · Community facilitator
Erifili Davis
Writer, filmmaker · Moment Lounge creator
Rose Prout
Centric Movement · Founding sponsor
Renee Webster
Psychological therapist · Season of Enough
Kalina Davis
Actor, singer-songwriter · Inspired by Her
Camilla Ward
Creative voice coach · Cam & Shaz Show
Jessie May
Host · Every Woman at Crossroads
This list is a starting point — the festival is co-created with dozens of artists, community services, businesses and local leaders across the Orana. If a name is missing, please get in touch.
Let's make something good.
Partnership enquiries, programme ideas, or just to say hello.