methods For democracy Festivals

In 2017, we conducted collaborative research to gather knowledge and experience on democracy festivals in the Nordic-Baltic region. We hope that sharing this knowledge about the differences, similarities, challenges and opportunities of these democracy festivals will serve as a point of departure for new countries to organise their own festivals or cross-festivals initiatives.

Democracy festivals need room to share knowledge, solutions and ideas, as well as to build joint initiatives,” Mia Stuhre, Vice-Chair of the Democracy Festivals Association.

Democracy Festivals. Introduction

Until 2017 it was difficult to get a comprehensive overview of the democracy festivals in the Nordic and Baltic Sea region: not only due to language – but also on a deeper level, grasping the underlying cultural differences. We hope this paper will shed the light on the differences, similarities, challenges and opportunities these democracy festivals face.

Design Dimensions

This paper, published in 2017, is a result of our joint efforts to deconstruct a Democracy Festival into ten core design dimensions based on the experience of eight democracy festivals. We hope that this paper will serve you as an inspiration and be a good guide in strengthening participatory democracy, organising a democracy festival or convening people in other events in your home country.

Learn more about how we define the Democracy Festivals’ Design Dimensions.