On Saturday September 22 (from 9.00 to 23.00), the first European Democracy Festival will be held in the Leopold Park in Brussels. It is a festival where people can physically get together, talk to each other, listen, get inspired, exchange opinions with European political leaders, civil society organizations, scientific experts,… and debate their ideas about the Europe they want, the Europe they love or hate. Supported by the King Baudouin Foundation, the festival wants to be an innovative space for a re-energized democracy.
Jubel is a platform for people to talk about, investigate and develop solutions for the urgent questions for Europe and its citizens.
The festival will be composed of different stages, different innovative conversation formats and a series of interactive tools and exhibitions about the Europe of the people. It is organized by a series of engaged individuals and is inspired by and capitalizes on the rich tradition of similar festivals founded in the Nordic and Baltic countries. These festivals find themselves their roots in the Swedish Almedalen Week, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2018.
Despite several initiatives from the European Institutions to reconnect with its citizens, Jubel is convinced that a more colorful, original and bottom-up approach is needed to create a stronger link between Europe’s citizens and its elites and thus help overcoming the EU’s legitimacy crisis.
The first edition of the Jubel festival intends to build an ambitious, but cool prototype, to test types of partnership, organizational principles, event design and communication channels all together.
The festival will be composed of a main stage, a civil society village, stands of the European institutions, a European canteen where more informal conversation formats will take place, a set of captation tools as new ways to capture the feeling and the real issues of the people and several exhibitions in relation to the European Democracy (Festivals). One of these exhibitions will be the “European circuit”, a visual summary of the visits of the Jubel team members to the national festivals this summer.
Through different conversation formats such as a Pecha-Kucha for Europe, the festival will discuss the origins of euroscepticism, the future of citizens’ dialogues and look into ways to help transforming the EU institutions into better listening bodies.
Several European political groups will attend, and have the chance to give a major speech and debate current issues. The different European Institutions as well as a series of civil society organizations will organize lectures, debates, workshops and performances.
Jubel will show that democracy and conversation about society and politics can also be fun and surprising for all: European games, a kid’s corner, European postcards and other interactive tools will be deployed on the festival area around the pond in the Leopold park.
The Jubel festival wants to be something completely different than anything that has been seen so far under the European sky. In expression, content and crowd.
The festival is made possible by the support of the King Baudouin Foundation and a series of partners: the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, Stand Up for Europe, Democratic Society, Foundation for European Progressive Studies, We Do Democracy, Whyte, European Quarter Fund, eQuama, La République Française (citizens consultations on Europe).
More information : www.jubelfestival.eu
For general information : Lenaerts.S@Kbs-frb.be