What is the Opinion Festival?
The Opinion Festival is a meeting place for all layers of society, giving a platform for different worldviews. Its mission is to improve debate culture and civic education. The Festival is free of charge and open to everyone in Estonia and beyond who would like to discuss and tackle issues that matter for all of us.
You’re more than welcome to the Festival if you’re interested in listening, thinking, asking questions and having a say about important topics of society. It is a place where you can find like-minded people but also new ideas, perspectives, point of views and spend some wonderful time. In the Opinion Festival you can find out what an Estonian thinks, what concerns them and what brings them joy.
“The Opinion Festival is one of few places where people from government and non-governmental organizations, cultural figures, entrepreneurs, universities, journalists, citizens come together, they are all part of the Estonia’s debate culture. Every public group has their own communication platforms and meeting places. In the Opinion Festival we can meet face to face to share topics and point of views that we really care about to find better understanding of each other,” founder of the Opinion Festival Kristi Liiva
The Festival thrives on a decentralized structure: public discussions on a broad range of topics, from national security to health to social innovation, are suggested and run by people and organizations following a open call for ideas each spring. Ideas can be sent by organisations, groups of people or individuals. If an organization’s suggested topic is successful and accepted into the festival programme, it is that organization who is responsible for and sets up the discussion about that topic. The Festival team, made up of volunteers from across Estonia, manages the final programme and supports the organizations with the necessary know-how. Arvamusfestival offers a platvorm where it is possible to hold a debate
To have an opinion is easy- some ideas you agree with and some you don’t. It’s harder to come to an opinion that actually has an impact which would enrich the public debate and could help people to get to better solutions. The Opinion Festival debates follow good discussion practice.
We record the debates in sound and image. The debates will be uploaded on your podcast app and you can look up the images of the Festival on Flickr. All the materials are free to use if you make reference to the Opinion Festival and to the author of the picture.
The Opinion Festival is part of the Democracy Festivals Association. Through the network, democracy festivals from different countries can exchange experiences and knowledge in order to promote participatory democracy even more effectively.
See you at the Opinion Festival!