The eighth LAMPA Conversation Festival has made a splash with its 270 events on various topics relevant to society. Around 19,000 people visited the festival in total.
"It is a real pleasure for us to meet in person in the usual LAMPA format in Cēsis. Right now, when Russia's war against Ukraine is going on right next door, we are clearly aware that the mission of the festival to strengthen the culture of democracy in Latvia is even more important than before. Life in a democracy is unimaginable without conversations and dialogue between different groups of society, and we were lucky to experience it in this year's LAMPA", says Ieva Morica, director of the LAMPA Conversation Festival, expressing her joy at the possibility of having in-person and on-site festival in Cēsis.
The festival programme was co-created by 270 organizations from all over Latvia, but the themes and formats of its events have remained unchanged, broad and appealing, confirming that LAMPA is a festival for everyone – Latvian, Russian and English speakers, young people and seniors, philosophers and practitioners. In order to make LAMPAS content accessible to visitors with hearing disabilities, sign language translation and real-time text transcription was provided for part of the events.
13. Saeima's Last Call Party
At the end of the first day of the festival, the Politicians' Disco took place, which this year was called the 13th Saeima's Last Call Party, and the celebration turned out to be truly grand, gathering hundreds of visitors. Inese Lībiņa-Egnere (“Jaunā vienotība”), Ieva Akuratere (“Koservatīvie”), Ralfs Nemiro (“Latvijas Pirmajā vietā”), Aigars Bikše ("Attīstībai/Par!") stood at the DJ console, while DJ and radio personality Toms Grēviņš helped the politicians keep the rhythm.
Politicians' Roast
As usual, the festival was closed by one of the most daring and most awaited events for visitors - "Roast of Politicians". This time, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Artūrs Toms Plešs ("Attīstībai/Par!”) Minister of Education and Science Anita Muižniece ("Koservatīvie"), 13th Saeima Deputy Edgars Tavars (Latijas Zaļā partija) and Riga City Council Deputy Antoņina Nenasheva ( “Progresīvie!”).
Video records of a part of the festival events are now available in the “Archive” section.