'Fantastic and empowering' event happening in Waterford next week as SHINE festival gets underway
Hosted by Shona.ie, the SHINE Festival is an annual event for secondary school aged girls to come together and feel empowered and inspired
The annual SHINE Festival will take place on International Day of The Girl in Waterford next week for the seventh time since 2018.
SHINE, brought to the South East by Shona.ie, is a two-day event that brings thousands of secondary school girls together to feel inspired and empowered.
This year's festival will take place on October 22nd at the SETU Arena.
Girls will hear from a number of different speakers including Yemi Adenuga, Ellen Keane, and Shona.ie founder, Tammy Darcy.
It will be hosted by Megan O'Regan Byrne and Shonagh Lyons for the third year in a row.
"It's such a fantastic and empowering event for younger women. Every year that I'm there, I leave on such a happy, high-energy buzz. I feel so empowered and I'm not even one of the students participating in all of the activities going on throughout the day," Megan said.
"I think it's such a lovely day for younger girls to see boss women doing their thing and they can learn from them. I do wish it was a thing when I was younger that I got to attend. I think this is something that every single younger woman in the country should be privileged to attend either in person or online," she added.
The students will be taking part in a series of activities including a meditation, a workshop on "How to be an Ally," and a closing dance party.
The festival will also have a number of different stations with different things on offer.
Some of these include a self-love wall, a wellness stage, a stress buster zone, and a virtual village, to name a few.
For those who cannot attend the event in person, Shona.ie has created an online version that allows people to explore the different stations and zones.
The event will also be recorded across the two days and then uploaded to the online version.
The SHINE festival launched in 2018 with just 350 transition year students attending.
It has continued to grow ever since with over 2,000 girls attending last year.