The annual multi-award-winning Shine Festival kicked off at SETU Arena in Waterford this morning.
The festival which is now in its fifth year will see 2,000 teenage girls from secondary schools all across the country flock to Waterford city for the two-day festival.
🗣 HEY HEY HEY! SHINE FESTIVAL IS BACK!🤩
🔥 What a fabulous International Day of the Girl with @shonadotie at SETU Arena, celebrating GIRL POWER!!🥳
🙌 Thanks to all the fabulous speakers for their incredible words of wisdom for the girls who will run the world someday!💜 pic.twitter.com/NerRqH1OE6
— Beat 102 103 (@beat102103) October 11, 2023
The event marks International Day of The Girl which is being celebrated globally today.
Back in 2011, The United Nations declared October 11th as the official International Day of the Girl to recognise girls’ rights and the unique challenges that girls face around the world.
The annual event shines a spotlight on two central themes:
The promotion of girls’ empowerment and the encouragement of countries to create solutions that will help girls fulfill their basic human rights.
Shine Festival is supported every year by Beat 102-103 and was founded by Waterford’s Tammy Darcy who runs The Shona Project. Based in Waterford, The Shona Project is a global movement aimed at empowering young girls.
The Social Entrepreneur’s sister Shona was diagnosed with a life-altering brain injury when she was a teenager. Tammy created this movement as a way of honouring her sister. Sadly Shona passed away earlier this year but Tammy has taken comfort in the fact that The Shona Project and the annual Shine Festival are keeping Shona’s memory alive.
Hosting the first day of the festival this year was Beat's Shonagh Lyons and Megan O'Regan Byrne who got the girls hyped for the inspirational female speakers before they took to the Shine stage.
The lineup for day one included some of Ireland’s leading female speakers from Kildare goalkeeper and mental health advocate Mary Hulgraine to psychologist and rockstar with the Blizzards Louize Carroll.
Mary spoke about her struggles with addiction and how she got the help she needed to get clean. She will reach her three-year sobriety milestone this Sunday.
Louize spoke to the teenage girls' about their emotions and how the relationships we have with how we think and how we feel determines how we behave in our lives.
Sheila Kearney from The Collective Waterford got the girls' feeling all zen with some meditation.
More empowering women who took to the Shine stage were communications expert Ellen Gunning, Feminist Ailbhe Smyth, and life coach Sarah Doyle.
Ellen spoke to the young girls' about how in the future possessions won't matter but experiences will. She also told them to find something they love and to keep doing it.
Ailbhe talked to the teenagers about equality and the ‘Together for Yes’ referendum campaign which she co-directed.
Sarah Doyle inspired the girls by telling them they don't need all these filters on social media to look pretty while taking off her makeup mid-speech. She also had the girls stand up and shout some affirmations such as "I am enough" and "Today I will shine"
The last speaker to take to the stage was councillor and Gogglebox star Yemi Adenuga. She began by showing all the girls how to pronounce her name having all of them shout it back at her.
Yemi wanted to focus her speech on choices. She spoke about how young people are so influenced by peer pressure and to follow trends but that it's important to know how their choices will influence the future and not see how things that happened in the past as mistakes but as learnings.
The finale of the day saw an All Together NOW 2023 festival highlight. Singing group Singalong Social treated the girls to a special performance - they definitely put them through their paces.
Day two of the festival will see even more inspirational women take to the Shine stage including World and Olympic Champion Kellie Harrington, Sustainability Queen Fionnuala Moran, Creative Genius Kim McKenzie, Diversity & Inclusion Advocate Bobbie Hickey, Activist Amanda Ade and Director of A Lust for Life Ciara O’Connor.
Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website Beat102103.com
