The festivals are platforms for democratic dialogue between civil society, politicians, business, media, universities, and the general public. They represent the largest democratic events in the countries outside of elections. The current members of the Democracy Festivals Association are from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Northern Ireland (UK), and Turkey.
There are already democracy festival initiatives on the way in many other countries — Turkey, Kenya, Japan, United States, Italy, Poland. New festivals can join the Democracy Festivals Association.
"The tremendous response from other countries in organising their democracy festivals leads us to believe that the distance between citizens and a political system is creating a need that goes far beyond national boundaries. The Democracy festivals by creating a societal meeting space aim to close that gap.”
