BICYCLE saddles and bloomers in bright green, white and purple have been created as part of a festival inspired by the centenary of the first British women winning the right to vote.

The workshop, held at Modern Art Oxford on Saturday, helped start the Oxford International Women’s Festival, which has used the historic anniversary as the theme for this year’s packed two-week programme.

Bikes and bloomers are viewed as symbols of women’s liberation due to the freedom of movement they provided and artist Nicola Donovan was on hand to show people how to sew the colourful items – many of which will next be seen at July’s Cowley Road Carnival parade.

The centrepiece of the 2018 women’s festival will be a suffrage debate, complete with hecklers, reenacted in the Town Hall next week.

Organiser, Debbie Hollingsworth, said: “Some years it can be a little bit of a struggle to come up with a theme but this time it was obvious what it had to be.

“We’ve got a fantastic programme lined up, with something for everyone from craft events like the bikes and bloomers workshop to historical talks and discussions about modern issues.”

"The debate will be a fantastic way to make the history of the fight for women to be able to vote come to life.

“People will be in costume and the speeches will be real ones that were given in the Town Hall 100 years ago.

“We’ll even have some hecklers to really get into the spirit of things.”

The festival, which is now in its 29th year, started on Saturday and will run until Sunday, March 11, with the debate at the Town Hall on March 8.

Following the imagined debate between leading local and national speakers from both sides of the women’s suffrage campaign, there will be a discussion about what the vote means to women in the 21st century, which will be chaired by Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds.

Other events will include a tour retracing the history of the women suffrage activists in Oxford.

Ms Hollingsworth, who has been involved with the festival for more than a decade, said thoughts were already turning towards another anniversary.

She said: “It’s our 30th birthday next year so we are already thinking about how to mark the milestone.”

Originally funded by Oxford City Council as part of its events programme, the festival started small, but was a success right from the start.

In subsequent years Waterstone’s, Blackwell's, Modern Art Oxford, and the city museums joined in and put on events which enabled the Collective to include major figures such as Germaine Greer, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Yoko Ono in the programme.

Visit oxfordinternationalwomensfestival.co.uk.