Not only is the spring well under way, but also the preparations for the third Opinion Festival!
This year the Festival will be held on the 7th of September. Traditionally on this day, the city of Severodonetsk in Luhansk region becomes the largest discussion platform of the country.
The idea of the Opinion Festival of is that its participants have the chance to discuss the most important social issues. And in order to understand what currently worries people the most, we have kicked off the search for topics.
This means that you can offer a topic that is important for you, your community or your city!
This can be anything, for instance, education, reforms, the organization of the urban space or the implementation of legislative initiatives. Or we can discuss photography, cinema, sports, art, the environment or something else that occupies you right now.
On the day, beautiful and comfortable festival grounds will be at your disposal for outdoor discussions.
And now to the main thing!
You can send in your proposals for discussion topics or educational workshop for the festival today. You can nominate yourself or a colleague as an expert. We will assist in inviting interesting people as co-speakers or opponents for the topic you have suggested as well as finding a moderator and creating a comfortable atmosphere for the discussion. For this you need to fill out this form. The application deadline is the 15th of June.
A difficult selection process awaits us during which we will choose the most interesting and relevant topics, and the organizers will prepare the discussion program together with the selected applicants. Please keep an eye on the announcements on the Vostok-SOS’ website or on the Facebook page “Фестиваль думок 2019” to find out which topics have been selected.
If you want to join to the team of organizers and get the experience of creating similar events, we will be happy to welcome you as a volunteer of the festival. You can submit your application here. We will contact you one month before the Festival.
And now to the information about the Festival itself:
On the day of the Festival, there will be many discussions on important social issues with the participation of interesting speakers – leaders of opinions who will talk about their topics, support discussions with opponents or with people who agree with their topic. Everyone who wishes can take part in the following discussions and of course make new plans, find interesting contacts and maybe change the world a bit. You will have the opportunity to hear inspirational talks, exchange thoughts on socio-political issues, get new knowledge, fresh ideas and take part in seminars.
On the day of the Festival we plan to make Severodonetsk into the center of cultural life in eastern Ukraine. But not only with discussions)) – but also masterclasses, performances, a large children’s location, a concert and a film screening.
More about the format of the Opinion Festival:
The Festival is the creative experience to exchange ideas of Scandinavia and the Baltic states that emerged at the time when the Internet and TV platforms were exhausted and people needed to communicate in real life and to see each other again.
The experience of the Opinion Festival in Estonia can be found on the Festival’s website. The first Opinion Festival in Severodonetsk was held in 2017. You can read here how it was all made possible. And about the second Opinion Festival in 2018 here.
Follow the news about the Festival on Facebook.
Contact information: [email protected], +380 99 078-46-66
The organizers of the Opinion Festival are the Charitable Foundation “Vostok-SOS” and the Estonian organization MTÜ Mondo in partnership with Democracy Reporting International and Libereco – partnership for human rights. The media partner of the Festival is the Resource center GURT: The portal of active citizens and the primary media partner is the TV channel UA: Donbas and UA: Ukrainian radio Pulse.
The Czech Center co-organizes the event.
The festival is part of the Transition Promotion Program with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
The festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia and the Swiss Embassy in Ukraine.
