What Ada means
The Ada is the first daughter — a position of honour and responsibility in an Igbo family. The title is not decorative.
Nnọọ — welcome
Ten years of crowning our own.
1:00 pm · Crowne Plaza Blanchardstown
The 2026 pageant is also our tenth anniversary — a decade of Igbo dress, dance, language and ceremony in Ireland, ending as it always does with a crown for the Ada and the Okpara. Everyone is welcome in the room.
2016 – 2026
Ten years of excellence, culture, heritage and impact
What began as one pageant is now a decade of young people who can name their village, wear their people’s cloth, and stand up in a room and speak for where they come from.
The day itself
What happens at the pageant
Written for someone who has never been to an Igbo pageant, and wants to know whether this is for them. It is.
- Doors
- 1:00 pm — arrival, welcome, photographs.
- The procession
- Contestants enter in full traditional dress, each carrying the odu inyinya — the horse tail.
- Culture & talent
- Dance, language and the rounds that make up the competition.
- The crowning
- The new Ada and the new Okpara are named and crowned.
- Dress
- Traditional Igbo attire encouraged for all guests.
To supply
The running order after doors, and the ticket tiers and prices.
Why it matters
More than a beauty contest
And Okpara
The Okpara is the first son, who carries the same weight on the other side of the family. Both crowns are given on the day.
Judged off stage too
How a contestant conducts themselves away from the lights counts as heavily as how they carry themselves on it.
Our reigning Ada
The one wearing the crown
A short line in her own words about what the title means to her.
To supply
The reigning Ada’s name, reign year, portrait, and a
sentence or two she is happy to have published — and the
same for the reigning Okpara.
Photograph
Portrait of the reigning Ada
Portrait crop, 3:4
Portrait crop, 3:4
Enter the pageant
Open to young Igbo women and men in Ireland and across Europe who want to represent their heritage. Entries are reviewed by the organising team.
Become a sponsor
Support a decade-old celebration that keeps Igbo culture alive for the next generation growing up in Europe.