Also speaking will be Kirsty Windeyer, the secretary of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory and  Ellen Jacobson,  social impact manager at HoMie - a social enterprise streetwear label in Melbourne.

Dr Emma Adams, who was inspired to write a book after her visit to immigration detention centres in Darwin, is also a speaker, as is renewable energy expert Dr Matthew Stocks.

The annual Dirrum Festival aims to "foster a greater humanity''  through an "exploration of dangerous ideas'' and is run entirely by year 12 students. This year's festival is at the college on Saturday, August 18. It has already sold out. But there will be markets and a fashion parade on the same day for all-comers.

Annie Creer, 18, was charged with securing the speakers, organising everything down to flights and hotel bookings.

"Of course, it's going to be really intimidating emailing Gillian Triggs or Peter Greste and saying, 'Hi, this is our little student-run event' but a lot of thought goes into the emails,'' she said.

"And their values can resonate a lot with the event even though it might not be one of the biggest in Australia. They can see what we're trying to do and respect that.''

Isla Baird and Hugo Webster, both 17, got the word out about the festival, including on social media.

"It brings all of the things that you learnt at school together and into a practicable application,'' Isla said.

Niamh Martin, 17, worked in administration. Lydia Murray, 17, helped to organise the fashion show and markets, gaining a new appreciation of the coordination required.

Annie said organising the festival gave them all a boost of confidence.

"Even just a lot of skills. I guess even, for a lot of us, going to the doctor by yourself alone for the first time can be scary, let alone calling up these people. So it does give you a lot of confidence in that respect,'' she said.

"But also it's very humbling and incredible to be sitting in a room with these people who've done so much and for us to learn from them.''

Part of the festival is the students taking up a real-world challenge. Oliver Golding, 17, set himself the task of promoting sustainable fashion and a parade of his upcycled designs will be held at 4.30pm on the day of the festival.

"I've been quite involved with fashion and one of the biggest things in the fashion world is the waste we're producing and that's becoming a big interest of a lot of people, especially with fast fashion,'' he said.

"My kind of drive was that I hated that but I was also very into clothing so I decided to start making my own.''

Radford College chaplain Father Richard Browning said last year's event was a success and he was not surprised by that.

"It's not just an afternoon of amazing speakers and really, really stimulating content, part of the background to it is young people practising how they themselves are able to express their talents, skills, passions, interests in a genuine place of need in the community,'' he said.

"We're asking them to play with that, fail at that, explore that and that is really, really good.''

More details at  www.dirrumdirrum.org