Message of the Festival: “Rest with Benefit. Discover! Learn! Create! ”
The concept of the Festival had the following tasks:
– To raise awareness of residents and guests of the city on the existing civic initiatives and activities of non-governmental organizations in Dnipro city and Dnipropetrovsk oblast.
– To involve residents in the activities of civil society organizations.
– To establish links and partnership between regional CSOs, the project participants.
Coalition of 30 CSOs on various fields was formed to hold the festival. Those CSOs merged into Online Museum with interesting thematic installations, master classes, flash mobs, quests and performances. In the Lecture Hall civil society experts held discussions on issues of concern to the residents: from the new Ukrainian school to the openness of the city budget. Bicycle motocross, roller-skating, skateboarding and kick scootering competitions were held in Extreme Sport Zone. The approach to organization of the festival created a real family atmosphere. That is why the most popular activities were related to creativity, culture, quests and games: coloring in the style of “doodling”, clay master classes, life-size puppet, play zones. More than 5,000 residents and guests of the city attended the event.
The festival was notable for its design in the style of cubism with combination of Ukrainian traditions: the band of old women “Krynytsia”, included in the List of elements of intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO, was singing; master class on playing bandura (national Ukrainian Music instrument) was held. Master class on drumming “Drum Circle ETNODRIVE” drawn the attention of the audience. And musical fire show was the final event. Parents mostly stayed near the parents club “Cafe with Dad tete-a-tete”, young people were mostly attracted to the extreme sports area. The participants got acquainted with the budget of Dnipro online: it was possible to write the offers and even to observe dividing (“sawing”) by means of quite real saw.
The festival showed that there is actually strong and influential civil society sector in Dnipro city, and the city residents had an opportunity to get acquainted with it during the festival.