10 Years of the Opinion Festival: From the First Conversation to Today
Just as a thread connects individual knots into a single piece of fabric, for 10 years the Opinion Festival has brought people, ideas and experiences together in one big conversation about Ukraine’s future.
Each festival has responded to the social and political context of the time – the situation in eastern Ukraine, the onset of the russia-Ukraine War, the pandemic and the full-scale invasion. The challenges, contexts, cities, participants and issues that concerned society have changed.
But one thing has remained constant – the desire to understand one another and build the future together.
We have put together the history of the Opinion Festival – from the first to the tenth edition, which will continue the conversation this autumn.
2017
The first festival was held in Siverskodonetsk. Almost 500 people took part in 24 discussions. Until 2021, the city welcomed guests from different cities across Ukraine and partner countries.
2018
The second festival brought together 800 visitors. Speakers included guests from Kyiv, Lviv and Lysychansk, as well as Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia.
2019
That year, the Opinion Festival welcomed more than 1,000 visitors. The program included 25 discussions and 12 additional activities, including exhibitions, performances, flash mobs, art installations and presentations.
2020
The fourth Festival of Thoughts lasted six days and received more than 12,500 views of its livestreams, while 450 people attended the offline events. The festival also featured travelling discussions at the “Grand Canyon” in Lysychansk – a quarry created as a result of illegal coal mining. In this way, we drew attention to the consequences of corruption and the related environmental problems in the region.
2021
The two-day festival brought together 2,600 participants online and offline.
At seven locations, experts from Ukraine and Europe discussed war and crises. The second day focused on tourism development in Luhansk Oblast and debunking myths about the region spread by russian propaganda.
2022
Siverskodonetsk was temporarily occupied by the russian army. But the Opinion Festival still took place – as a testament to the resilience of ideas and love for Luhansk Oblast. The event was held in a hybrid format, online and offline in Dnipro. Online discussions focused on young people, theatre, history, society and propaganda. The offline program consisted of three discussions and art therapy sessions.
2023
For the seventh time, the festival brought together active members of civil society in Kyiv. More than 280 people joined eight panel discussions featuring 38 speakers. Еhe event took place at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, near the Mother Ukraine monument. As part of the program, we also presented the documentary The Fight of Jamala to guests in cooperation with the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
2024
The eighth festival took place in Kyiv on the grounds of the Saint Sophia of Kyiv National Conservation Area. Around 600 people attended. All discussions centered around the theme “10 Years of War: An Experience That is Changing the Nation”. Guests could also visit educational thematic spaces, including Chronicles of Evacuation – a series of photographs documenting the work of the East SOS team since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
2025
Last year, the festival took place at the ArtZavod Platforma and brought together almost 500 guests. Key topics included life under occupation, captivity and repression, the demographic crisis and other socially important topics. Representatives of national and international civil society organisations, government institutions and the media joined the discussions. During the event, we also collected donations for electronic warfare systems to protect East SOS evacuation crews.
2026
Stay tuned…
Festival date and venue: September 12, 10:00–19:00
Vsi. Svoi Venue, 12 Desiatynna Street, Kyiv
Free admission, registration required.
Find the Facebook event via the link.
The Festival is organized by East SOS as part of the EMPOWER project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union and implemented by GIZ Ukraine, with additional support from Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and the Estonian organization MONDO.
East SOS bears sole responsibility for the content of this publication. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the Festival’s partners and donors.
The Festival’s media partners are Eastern Variant (Skhidnyi Variant), Rubryka, Free Radio (Vilne Radio), Hromadske Radio, Nakypilo.Radio, Eastern Point (Tochka Skhodu), and Tribun.
To discuss partnership opportunities, please contact Kseniia Lisna, Head of Partnerships and Fundraising at East SOS, at [email protected].
The East SOS is seeking funding for this year’s event. We are open to cooperation with responsible businesses, international NGOs, and donors.
