During the festival, participants engage with theatre workshops, devising, talks, and events which all aim to educate them and create a desire to think of methods to tackle the issues raised during the week. Participants were able to sign up for morning workshops led by specially trained and experienced facilitators. These included dance, voice, stage combat, Cappoeira and Improvisation workshops.

In the afternoons, participants were in recurring, more intense devising workshops alongside directors, and in the evening talks were held by local organisations and charities related to the festival's themes. Speakers from Trócaire, The Migrant Rights Support Group, Wexford Travellers' Group and Amnesty International all made appearances.

The work of the Human Rights Youth Theatre Festival is based on that of the UN Charter of Human Rights. The 2008 festival responds to the Charter with the overwhelming evidence that women are more likely to face gender-fuelled erosion of their rights.

The week was concluded with an evening run of five performances, one from each of the aforementioned afternoon workshops, in the Riverbank theatre. The work was inspired by what had been learnt and explored throughout the week and each performance was followed by post-show discussions.