Arvamusfestival, Opinion Festival
Arvamusfestival, Estonia
The Arvamusfestival (Opinion Festival) believes that they influence first and foremost each individual participating. All big changes in the world begin with little flickers of thought or emotion inside a person. The festival creates a place that offers those inspirational moments that get people on the path to becoming more informed, inspired, open, brave, and active – to build a better discussion culture and stronger democracy in Estonia.
Purpose and vision
“Arvamusfestival is an open and inspiring meeting place for different opinions and new ideas, where discussions and debates on important topics come to life. Our mission is to bring together all societal groups, to empower people and through this – improve the culture of discussion”.
Founder and year of establishment
Arvamusfestival was established in 2013. The festival was founded as a civic initiative, in a climate of growing distrust towards politics and disillusionment in public discussions. The idea was to team up to establish a platform for open discussion, a new kind of experience through meaningful and engaging debates.
Organisational structure
Arvamusfestival is owned by the non-profit organisation MTÜ Arvamusfestival. With only 4 paid personnel, most of the work is done by ca 250 volunteers. Arvamusfestival relies almost completely on support from sponsors (state, local, business, private), also more and more on project grants and pro bono partners.
Location and length
The festival is located in Paide and takes place for 2 days on the 2nd weekend of August. It was located in Paide because people in Paide saw the potential of Arvamusfestival and offered tremendous volunteer support. The festival is located 90 km from Tallinn and the town has approximately 8350 inhabitants.
Size – number of participants and events
In 2023, according to the paper wristbands handed out to all participants, the festival's own estimate of unique participants was approximately 10,000. There were 20 themed stages with over 160 open discussions in various inclusive formats. In addition, we offered numerous free events in the cultural program and various workshops for everyone to attend.
People attending the festival
The festival is open to all, based on feedback from questionnaires (315 responses in 2022), the festival mostly attracts young and middle-aged people who are interested in societal questions, or the development of a certain field.
Gender: 65% women and 35% men
Geographical area: 40% from the capital Tallinn or Harju County, 20 % from Tartu County, 20% Järvamaa County (locals).
There are Estonian, English and Russian discussions in the programme, making it possible also for foreign visitors to participate. In addition, ca. 20 discussions are translated into Estonian sign language.
Involvement of the political parties
The seven most popular parties have a chance to participate in one curated political stage. There will be held 8 discussions where all the parties can sign up. Themes for discussions are put together with parties and Arvamusfestival team. Each of the parties can send up to 6 people to take part in discussions where one party can have only 1 representative in one discussion. That enables us to have very deep and meaningful discussions. Arvamusfestival traditionally ends on Saturday evening with a debate of the leaders of the parliamentary parties.
Programme
Anyone can apply to organise an event. In March, there is an open call for preliminary ideas for discussion topics. The core team along with the programme team analyses and evaluates the ideas and, based on similarity and synergy of topics, groups them on shared “theme” stages. Organisations are expected to organise discussions and stages themselves, while a team of festival curators consults on the process.
Arvamusfestival keeps the organisers on track, offers special inspirational events, workshops and gathers good practices materials to help develop discussion quality. In 2021, there were approximately 100 organisations having discussions, including non-profits, public sector institutions, businesses.
Arvamusfestival builds and pays only for a few important stages, for example, the discussion stage for children. The rest is organised by partners who have been thematically grouped. The main principles are to offer a wide variety of topics, to include some important evergreen topics, to avoid duplication, and to offer varied (more engaging and inspiring) discussion formats.
The festival puts a lot of effort into spreading the idea of an open and friendly atmosphere for discussions, which is why the festival has supported the organisation of pre-festival events in different areas of Estonia since 2016.
The festival has devoted more and more attention to cultural expression during the festival. Over the last years, the festival has focused on recreating public space in small towns represented by Paide. However, the greatest success story has been a 1,5-month urban space experiment in the town square, taking the square back from cars and traffic and returning it to the people and pedestrians - called PaideWay. The square was closed to traffic and, in cooperation with architects, the people of Arvamusfestival built areas to hang out, a music studio, and children's area etc