But a bunch of school kids is showing how it's done well, snaring stellar speakers usually found on Q&A and working on a legacy of past festivals that have resulted in tangible change.

It is a tradition for year 12 students at Radford College to each year single-handedly organise the Dirrum Dirrum Festival, a forum for exploring "dangerous ideas" and sparking action.

This year, the students have secured eight high-profile speakers including Youth Without Borders founder Yassmin Abdel-Magied, former crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, Emergent chief executive officer Holly Ransom, Nauru detention centre whistleblower Toby Gunn, quadriplegic farmer Sam Bailey and theologian Sarah Bachelard. Global Poverty Project director Michael Sheldrick has also accepted the invitation.

And how did they do it?

"We asked," year 12 student Huw Davis said.

"We started about 11 months ago. We put our heads together and thought, 'Who do we want to see?'."

The theme of this year's festival is "For the Common Good", with two sessions of speakers at Radford on Saturday, August 5, exploring that theme in all its permutations. The event is open to the public.

Huw said the speakers were surprised when they realised the festival was organised by school students.

"That is definitely something that does shock people, that we're organising something on this scale," he said.

"But I think that's a good thing. We're doing something that isn't normally done and really trying to create something that we're passionate about and can represent what we believe in."

And Dirrum Dirrum - a reference to the Ngunnawal word for red earth ,reflecting a sense of belonging - is not set up to be another well-meaning but ineffective talkfest.

The 2015 and 2016 festivals saw students volunteer to assist CSIRO scientists Richard Stirzaker make more of his soil "chameleon" devices for farmers in Zimbabwe. Richard returns to Dirrum Dirrum in 2017 to give an update on their progress.

And two cafe owners who attended last year's festival acted upon an idea formed there - travelling to Timor-Leste and starting a direct conversation between coffee growers and Australian consumers.

The festival also inspires confidence in the students.

Rosie Goggs, 18, is in the communications team, organising all the advertising for the event.

"You learn brilliant organisational skills," she said.

"To bring together an event of this size takes months of work.

"But also it's really good in terms of this festival creates amazing new ideas and inspires incredible confidence to encourage people to jump out and do what you want to do now.

"It teaches people to grab opportunities while they're there."

The students also work on their own individual challenges and speak about those as part of the sessions.

They range from an exploration of feminism by 17-year-old Nii Adjei to a look at closing the Timor Gap by Sophie McGready, also 17, which has resulted in a petition to be presented to parliament.

Radford College chaplain Father Richard Browning said a key feature of the festival was encouraging the students to be part of something bigger than themselves.

"It's been my work to build Dirrum as a festival and give young people the space to do the extraordinary things they're capable of doing," he said.

"We're excited about the 2017 festival. It's a cracking line-up, it truly is."

The Dirrum Dirrum Festival will be held at Radford College in College Street, Bruce on Saturday, August 5.

The first session of speakers is from 2pm to 4pm and comprises Sam Bailey, Sarah Bachelard, Holly ransom and Yassmin Abdul-Magied.

The second session is 5pm to 7pm and comprises Holly Ransom, Mark Tedeschi, Toby Gunn, Richard Stirzaker and Michael Sheldrick.

Tickets are limited and available at https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=293145&