Slay Festival: My Honest Take On The 2019 Edition

In 2017, if you asked me the top five femcentric event I would love to attend, Slay Festival was somewhere in between. Fast forward to 2019 and I got to attend this year’s edition.

At first, I wasn’t going to attend especially after my best friend and waka-waka partner, Nneoma who attended the 2018 edition told me she didn’t totally enjoy the experience. To say I was gobsmacked would be an understatement, until this point, the only picture I had of Slay Festival was a perfect one.

However, I refused to let her dent the picture-perfect image I had and together with seeing that my absolute favourite YouTuber @DimmaUmeh would host a meet and greet, my decision to go was sealed.

Before the D-day- Getting acquainted with the event.

The She Leads Africa team who organised the annual Slay Festival played their digital marketing card right because the event was everywhere; one scroll through the feed and you will find a post relating to the festival, either from previous attendees or from those who were just so excited, they couldn’t stop talking about it.

It didn’t just end on the gram, my inbox felt the heat too as I got newsletters from the SLA team, duly informing me on how to purchase tickets, what to expect from the event, amongst other information.

Ticket prices varied, my friend Wendy mentioned she got hers a while back for just 1000 Naira while some others got theirs for as much as 3500 Naira.

They equally held ticket flash sales that went for as low as 1000 Naira. So yes, the Slay Team made sure to give us several options and I really loved that. Not to forget, there was also a ticket transfer window, during which you could transfer your ticket to another person. For a Nigerian event, I was impressed by this ticket transfer option.

Shoutout to Tofummi for the free ticket.

Before The D-day- Playing Dress-up

Aha! this was such a challenge for me as I am a far cry from being called fashionable. Looking back at photos from previous years gave me an idea of what to wear.

So yeah, I had it all thought out, a playsuit with a tee inside paired with good ol’ sneakers and a sling bag. Did I hear you say street style goddess! oh well, I thought so too until the D-day.

Slay Festival D-day- 28th September 2019

Getting set and on the go

Getting ready for the festival came with its own dilemma, I hardly slept the night before, so I woke up groggy and literally dragged my feet to do my morning routine, makeup and get dressed.

Speaking of which, remember my all too fantastic street-style goddess choice of an outfit? yeah. My cousin spoilt the zipper of my playsuit ( invisible zip is a B**ch).

At this point, I was already getting quite frustrated but after Bae talked me into looking for something else to wear, I threw on the lifesaver- a nice pair of jeans and a top, paired with low heeled sandals and I was good to go.

I would rather skip the long journey down to the event venue- Lekki Special Event Center. The only thing I’ve got to say is, I should probably have gone via public transportation, as I paid a whooping 5000 Naira plus for my Bolt ride. Kuku kill me.

Registration

Oh kudos to the team, registration was seamless, took less than three minutes from my time of arrival. All that was needed was the Pdf copy of your ticket. The registration desk was still active even at my time of departure at about 6 pm, Nigerian time. So latecomers still had the chance to partake in whatever was left of the event at their time of arrival.

Event Proper

The event was divided into several parts; the masterclasses, the recharge stage, the redesign stage, meet and greet and several outdoor events.

I found their line up of speakers to be great. Unfortunately, I didn’t partake in any masterclass.

I also found the event to be very overwhelming; too many classes to take, brands to explore, cool photo sessions and fun games. To be honest, this made the event somewhat disorganized. So much was going on within such a short time. For example, some of the classes were still on while it was time for the meet and greet which also didn’t start on time.

My friend Wendy couldn’t get a headset for a masterclass she registered for and was excited to attend. She was really unhappy with this.

Also to partake in some outdoor events also meant that you had to lose out of some indoor events because they were all going on at the same.

The slay team put together a great event, quite empowering and a good place to network but the time constraint ruined a bit of the experience for me.

It would make a huge difference and improvement if they work towards extending the program to probably a two-day event, to accommodate the long line up of activities.

Meeting Friends and Networking at the Slay Festival

Barely thirty minutes in, I ran into some amazing ladies, most which I knew from the blogosphere. Together, we began the journey of exploring the Slay festival together, we went around taking pictures at the cool photo spots. In the process, we met a few other social media acquaintances.

I hands down give it to the Slay team, they sure know how to pull a crowd of creative millennials.

Huge shout out to mercy @thatgiftedgirl who although I’ve known for some time, we have never met.

Mercy is a breath of fresh air, her excitement was contagious and I must say, she has cracked the codes of socializing and networking as she easily flowed with all and even put in the effort to help me make new friends.

The Highlight of the event was getting to meet and chat with Dimma Umeh, oh what a dream this was.

She looked so beautiful I was convinced to believe that her vlogging cameras don’t do her beauty justice.

We Said our Goodbyes…..

Well, at least until 2020.

At about 6 pm, with feet hurting from wearing shoes all day, Wendy and I made our exit from the event. Which was still very much alive at that time.

Overall, the Slay festival wasn’t a bad experience. However, I believe they can do better with their event organization and coordination.

Have you ever attended Slay festival? How was the experience?

With love, Gift Collins.

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