DIVERSITY FEST IS BACK FOR 2024!
The highly anticipated Diversity Festival is back once again for 2024! Div Fest will be held on the 24th of September from 2-5pm at Western Sydney University’s Parramatta South Campus.
This long awaited SRC event is free for all students to attend, and this time around it is celebrating the theme of ‘Our Story’, which highlights the unique and special stories, experiences and personalities of each student. This event invites other students to share their own stories as well as learn about others because as quoted by the Diversity Fest team “together we create our own uniqueness that makes Western Sydney University the special and multi-talented it is today”.
WESTWORD WRITING PANEL AND BOOK CLUB
This year Diversity Fest will be holding some exclusive events for students to craft their talents.
These include Westwords Writing Panel and Book Club, which is a 1.5-hour special with author panels and writing workshops hosted by six skilled writers and poets. This event is perfect for students who are emerging writers looking to learn key skills from panelists in how their identity and personal experiences creatively shape their writing.
The panel will also voice and represent the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, LGBTQIA+ communities, and disability representation, whilst highlighting the important intersectionality of these communities. This event will offer fantastic insight and tools to help emerging writers learn how to write from a place of identity and authenticity. Westwords invites all students to come learn and register here to participate in this outstanding opportunity!
JAPANESE FLOWER WORKSHOP
Another exciting workshop that is happening at DivFest is the Japanese ‘Tsunami’ Flower Accessory Workshop! This event is hosted by ‘Reverse Garbage’, a creative reuse centre who repurpose sustainable materials such as scrap fabrics and donated beads into beautiful ‘Japanese Tsumami Zaiku’ brooches. This workshop emphasises their message of reducing waste and creating change in the way we look at resources.
Japanese Tsunami Zaiku Brooches, Diversity Fest WSU. https://life.westernsydney.edu.au/DivFest/rsvp_boot?id=71241
This workshop will hold 3 sessions throughout the day, each 50 minutes long, and will be held at the following times:
Session 1 at 2.00pm to 2.50pm
Session 2 at 3.00pm to 3.50pm
Session 3 at 4.00pm to 4.50pm
This class will be held at the Pavilion and will guide you through each step, ensuring you feel confident and inspired as you hone your creativity. Register here and bring your friends on this creative journey of fun!
Throughout these amazing events taking place, there will also be a mixture of tantalising live performances, music, dance, art workshops, exciting stalls, delicious cultural food and more! Students Symphony Chakma and Julia Bell who attended the 2023 Diversity Fest shared their experiences and anticipation for this year’s event explaining the magical and enriching atmosphere of culture and community leaves them excited for what’s to come. “It was great to see everyone sharing their culture at Diversity Fest and I am definitely looking forwards to this event and also wearing my cultural outfit for the day” Symphony said. Julia shares the same passion for the event, stating that “there was a multitude of great stalls, food and performances to enjoy” and that she is “excited for what’s to come and would love to see it grow more in the future.”
These events and more will be held on the 24th of September and will be occurring at Parramatta South at the Pavilion Area and behind the hub. The festival will be open between 2pm – 5pm and students can get their free wrist band to the event by registering via WESTERNLife to give you full access on what’s on offer. The festival and SRC also encourages students to come dressed in their cultural dress and show off their amazing style.
Register here to get to get your free wrist band and bring your friends along to this amazing opportunity of fun, creativity and community that Diversity has to give! Hope to see you there!
Eugenia Kourkoutas is an emerging editor studying a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Cultural and Social Analysis and Social Anthropology. Within this degree, Eugenia has gained a multitude of experience in researching and analysing our everyday world and social interactions in order to addressing key issues occurring within our social climate today through investigative articles. Eugenia is also the proud recipient of the 2023 Deans List Award and is aspiring to become a feature writing journalist in the near future.