The seventh LAMPA Conversation Festival with the head theme of respect invites you to attend any of more than 200 events over two days, August 20 and 21, on various important topics: both practical and philosophical, global and local, by joining us in Cēsis or online and at communal viewing sites all over Latvia. As usual, the festival will be available free of admission both in person and live on festivalslampa.lv.
“Respecting the differences of others or the diversity of our society is not always easy. It's hard to respect someone who has different values and lives in another “bubble” and information space. However, by refusing to listen and trying to impose a single “right” opinion on our conversational partner, we not only lose the opportunity to find out something new and expand our horizons, but also abandon the conversation and start a fight where dignity often has no place. Therefore, this year’s LAMPA welcomes conversations on complicated topics, including those that might usually make us uncomfortable, to find topics we haven’t contemplated before and to consider how respectfully we can accept differences and controversy in order to build a better society together,” says Ieva Morica, director of LAMPA Conversation Festival.
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS IN ENGLISH
As each year, LAMPA continues to offer a variety of event topics and formats. In addition to events that are highly anticipated every year, such as the Political Disco and the traditional Political Roast, there will also be a discussion with the participation of the President and a series of surprising events to be experienced in person or remotely.
Many of the conversations will focus on emotional and mental aspects of human well-being, touching on uncomfortable, confusing and difficult topics and inquiring if a happy life is possible for everyone. The programme will include a range of topics essential to domestic harmony – from labour and men’s roles in the family to menopause and ageing in the era of celebrating youth. LAMPA will also challenge you to search for answers on whether it’s OK to be a loser, to allow yourself to downshift, or to deliberately lower your material standard of living in the name of mental well-being, and to not be ashamed if you don’t conform with the “normal” of social networks.
The community of LGBT and their friends will invite you to a friendly meeting featuring serious conversations on legislation, propaganda, religion, family, mental health, and other crucial topics, as well as an exuberant Drag King party, and they promise to decipher the long sequence of letters: LGBTQIA+.
Those who would rather perceive the world not through a simple conversation but a visual and audial experience will have the opportunity to participate in one of the various events in unusual formats at LAMPA, such as watching an LMT pilot control an unmanned passenger vehicle on Biķernieki track remotely from Cēsis, finding out what rap music, robots and dogs have in common through demonstrations from service dogs and dog handlers from the National Armed Forces Military Police, playing trivia games, testing their knowledge in a quiz on foreign policy, participating in a climate championship by the Latvian Fund for Nature (which will only take place in person on both days of the festival) or enjoying stand-up on climate and respect.
The programme of LAMPA will also be exciting to those whose relationship with food exceeds daily sustenance needs. The future of bread, food as art and a secret sign language that reveals much more than just available products or traditions of preparation – this time, LAMPA will encourage viewing food through literature, cinema and theater.
In an era where we search for sustainability, everyone will be able to find answers and directions to balance personal comfort and the common good. The Swedbank Sustainability stage will host conversations in a variety of areas ranging from emotional intelligence and sustainable business innovation to the impact of cryptocurrencies and our everyday choices on climate. People aged 12–18 will be especially welcome to join Swedbank’s youth sustainability program Beelievers and cook, bounce, skate, discover their superpowers using their phones and grow their learning muscles for the sake of the planet’s future.
Just like last year, the LAMPA website will provide the option of creating your own programme via the “My Programme” tool. It can be used to select events of preferred categories and create a simple, easy-to-use list of desirable events that can be simply viewed on a phone.
The team of LAMPA are very excited that it will be possible to experience LAMPA in person in Cēsis at new locations this year. However, in order to be able to do so and to allow an unlimited number of people to attend the festival, attendance of LAMPA will only be possible if presenting a valid Covid-19 certificate that confirms the completion of a full vaccination course or recovery within the past six months, along with an ID card or passport. The festival will therefore be available to attendees aged 12 and up, and the organizers of LAMPA are inviting persons with children, including infants, to view the festival remotely, as children under the age of 12 will not be able to be present in festival areas. It will be possible to follow the festival anywhere, free of charge, by viewing discussions live online or joining like-minded people at LAMPA communal viewing sites: libraries and culture centers, co-working spaces and cafés all over Latvia – from Aloja to Dundaga. For a full list of communal viewing sites, which will be updated by early August, see the festival website.