Performance at the European Parliament #EYE2025

I had to buy a new case to travel the European Youth Event - because even my largest case would not fit the EU wings and "Hate Dress" which I needed to bring - for my performance at the European Parliament.

I wasn't performing on the first day, but I decided to wear my EU wings anyway for the European Parliament in the UK Liaison Office's activities focussing on UK-EU youth relations - including a discussion with Sandro Gozi MEP, whose book I bought beforeand. The wings were not the most sensible choice of attire, as it is almost impossible to sit down in a chair in them, due to their length, however - they went down an absolute storm and I was constantly stopped for photos the entire day.

I was attending the event in an official capacity, as Lead Activity Co-ordinator for the Young European Movement - so I had to ensure smooth running of all the orgnanisational activities including "Advocacy Corner" where we were promoting our Youth Mobility campaign.

My performance was on the topic of Gender Equality and combatting Gender Based Violence, titled 'Empowering Women, Empowering Europe'.

I used the "Hate Dress" as the centre piece, respeaking some of the troll comments featured on the dress before performing some songs whilst the audience participated by creating me a new dress with empowering and supportive comments to counter the hate.

At the end of the performance I changed into the new dress the audience had created for me and put my EU wings on... It was really a wonderful moment of bringing people together in solidarity and I had a lot of positive feedback from the audience and from the European Parliament staff on the ground.

Some of the supportive messages written on the "Empower Dress"...

Afterwards, we joined the Young European Federalist's 'Don't Touch My Schengen' protest against border checks on countries in the Schengen area.

A special thank you has to go to my boyfriend, Johann, who helped me to carry all the insane amount of luggage to Strasbourg and around the European Parliament, as well as helping me get into and out of my costumes multiple times and taking photos every time someone asked.