Festival exploring Boys and Men line-up announced as part of inaugural MenCare Changemaker Summit 2026 – a four-day global convening to advance caring manhood and gender equality in Rio de Janeiro
Boys & Men Festival will take place on Friday 29 May, a one-day free public event featuring world class speakers and performers and a vibrant programme of conversation, art, performance and live music to explore themes around masculinity, care and solutions to the global gender based violence epidemic.
- Boys & Men Festival will take place on Friday 29 May across Museu De Arte do Rio and Museu do Amanhã, two of Brazil’s leading cultural venues
- Open to the general public with everyone invited. Free tickets are available to book now here
- Festival programme to include sessions specifically for young people and schools
- Presented by leading festival organisations WOW – Women of the World and global gender equality charity Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice as part of its inaugural MenCare Changemaker Summit taking place in Rio de Janeiro from 27 to 30 May 2026
- Speakers include acclaimed singer and composer Baco Exu do Blues, much loved performer, comedian and broadcaster Rita Von Hunty, educator and priest Padre Julio Lancelotti, and climate activist Ailton Krenak
Today, WOW – Women of the World and Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice are proud to announce details of the Boys & Men Festival, a one-day public event taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 29 May to explore how new visions of masculinity can shape safer, fairer and more caring futures. The festival takes place on the third day of the inaugural MenCare Changemaker Summit in Rio de Janeiro running from 27 to 30 May 2026, opening up conversations to the public with everyone invited to join this free festival packed with conversation, art and performance. Tickets are available now. Changemakers will automatically receive a ticket to attend so no need to book!
Taking place across two of Brazil’s leading cultural venues, Museu De Arte do Rio and Museu do Amanhã, the Boys & Men Festival will be a bold celebration of culture, conversation and collective action. Led by Equimundo CEO and Founder Gary Barker and WOW Founder Director Jude Kelly, in partnership with Brazilian partners Instituto PapodeHomem and Instituto Mapear, the festival will be a place where big ideas meet big energy, bringing together global thinkers, favela-based activists, artists, faith leaders, policymakers and young changemakers. Subjects explored will include climate justice and caring manhood, men’s allyship and health, media and role models, religion and transformation, fatherhood, racial injustice and the urgent global movement to prevent and respond to violence.
Events in the festival will be in Portuguese and/or English, with simultaneous translation available for many sessions.
Leading the line-up are world renowned cultural voices from Brazil including the much loved performer, comedian and broadcaster, Rita Von Hunty; actor, producer and director M.M. Izidoro; acclaimed singer and composer Baco Exu do Blues; writer and activist Raull Santiago, whose recent work shown a light on state violence in Complexo do Alemão and Penha politician and Rio’s police commissioner who has a special focus on the war on drugs Orlando Zaccone; writer and climate activist Ailton Krenak; Black female educator, culinarian and urban farming enthusiast and agroecology activist Ana Santos; human rights activist Irone Santiago; anthropologist and philosopher Luiz Eduardo Soares; poet and artist Math de Araujo; author Renato Noguera; writer, columnist, presenter and content creator Jonas Maria; creator of the Homem Paterno project Tiago Koch; artist and songwriter ALL-ICE; sexual health doctor Doutor Maravilha; activist Gilmara Cunha; academic, author and sports scientist Leonardo Peçanha; Activist and first trans woman active in the Brazilian Navy Bruna Benevides; Brazilian educator, economist and speaker, best known for his work in financial education, diversity, inclusion Ad Junior; Queer Eye presenter Luca Scarpelli; photographer Daniel Gonçalves; educator and popular priest known for his advocacy for the homeless and marginalised, Padre Julio Lancelotti; academic Babalawo Ivanir dos Santos and Pastor and M.P, Henrique Vieira.
Audiences young and old will also be able to explore workshops that challenge us to play with gender binaries with artist Juca Fiis. We’ll also be joined by Brazilian masculinities experts, director of the Instituto Mapear, Luciano Ramos, director of Instituto PapodeHomem, Guilherme Nascimento Valadares, and renowned academics and thought leaders,Marcos Nascimento, Jorge Lyra andBenedito Medrado who have helped developed the project.
International speakers include award-winning artist, musician and actor Jordan Stephens, poet Sam Browne, actor and executive producer of the hugely popular, Dreaming While Black, Adjani Salmon and internationally exhibited artist Kay Rufai, with more to be announced in the coming weeks.
Beyond the auditoriums, the festival spills into the courtyards and open spaces in true Rio style with capoeira circles and drumming workshops, passinho dance masterclasses, slam poetry, and a street-style altinha football championship. Festival goers can join a guided walking tour of Little Africa, step into a hands-on Hair Care Corner celebrating everyday fatherhood, or take part in workshops exploring identity, care and belonging.
The festival will end with a free public concert by a celebrated music group, soon to be announced, alongside award-winning artists, djs and performers. Full details can be found here.
Across the world, from the manosphere to men’s health, boys’ challenges in education and increasing push back against women’s rights, the conversations around men and masculinity are gaining increasing global visibility – and too often become divisive and distorted. The Festival and inaugural MenCare Changemaker Summit are taking place in Rio during a year where the Brazilian government launched the National Pact: Brazil Against Femicide and a major public campaign against gender-based violence, an issue that has reached a level of urgency in Brazil that is shared with many countries around the world. Recognising the scale and urgency of the moment requires systematic coordinated action, the MenCare Changemaker Summit, Rio 2026 will bring together thousands of people over its four days to co-create bold, practical solutions that advance gender equality, and answer some of the most urgent challenges facing boys, men and manhood around the world today.
Presented by Equimundo in partnership with WOW, the four-day programme will engage thousands of people in Rio, creating an unprecedented space for global collaboration. The summit will reimagine the role of men in care and equality – and how we can accelerate wellbeing for men and boys, together with women and girls and people of all gender identities, including exploring solutions to the global crisis of gender-based violence. Prior to the public festival day, 100 MenCare Changemakers – leaders and decision-makers from business, media, culture, civil society, and government from across six continents – will gather for a two-day workshop. The final day will see these Changmakers come together with Brazilian partners and experts for the MenCare Thought Leader Forum. The summit marks a key milestone in a dynamic two-year journey for the 100 MenCare Changemakers that began in the autumn of 2025 and continues with a second summit in Melbourne in 2027.
OPening up the conversation
Speaking about the importance of the Festival, Gary Barker, Founder and CEO of Equimundo said: “There is growing conversation about men and boys, too often framed in terms of problems, either their problems, or them as the problem – a rhetoric stuck in pessimism. Through our Boys & Men Festival and the Changemaker initiative, we are choosing a different path: one grounded in care. We see caring manhood not as an abstract ideal, but as a political, practical and powerful response to these challenges, offering a meaningful way to engage men in ending violence against women, and to recognise men as caregivers, both within families and across communities. This Festival is a space for solutions – a place to affirm and amplify the many ways women, men, boys, girls, and people of all identities can come together, nurture and embody the caring forms of manhood that our societies so urgently need.”
Jude Kelly, Founder Director of WOW – Women of the World said: “By announcing the Rio Boys & Men Festival today we’re throwing open the doors to everyone to be part of the MenCare Changemaker conversation – a crucial part of the wider four day summit in Brazil. We want all genders and ages to join us for an unforgettable day of talking, sharing and learning. Much like WOW Festivals, we’ll be addressing serious and urgent topics, but there will also be joy, play and community.”
The MenCare Changemaker Journey is led by Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice, in partnership with WOW – Women of the World working in collaboration with Instituto Mapear and Instituto PapodeHomem. It is funded by the Caring Masculinity Fund, with additional support from the Gates Foundation, Minderoo Foundation, Procter & Gamble, the Rise Together Fund, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.