See examples of festivals that promote peace, justice and intercommunal harmony. Get inspiration and ideas to plan your own peace festival.
by Taylor O’Connor | 5 July 2024
Photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash
“Peace cultures thrive on and are nourished by visions of how things might be, in a world where sharing and caring are part of the accepted lifeways for everyone.” – Elise Boulding
I took a deep dive into the global movement for a culture of peace recently. This is a movement that was quite popular in the early 2000s during the UN’s International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. During that decade UN funding mechanisms supported a broad array of projects and activities for the promotion of a global culture of peace.
There were many organizations dedicated to building a culture of peace, each with staff and volunteers focused on activities to promotion of a culture of peace. They developed their own frameworks and approaches. They produced toolkits and reports on their activities.
Then when the decade concluded the funding dried up. Projects ended and organizations shut down. You find remnants of outdated websites if you search the internet for anything related to a culture of peace. The momentum of their work fizzled out as international priorities (and funding) shifted.
Festivals as an approach to building a culture of peace
You don’t find many organizations anymore that are dedicated to building a culture of peace, but there are some people still dedicated to this, and some tools and approaches developed during that time have found use in support of other movements and initiatives.
Some elements of a culture of peace have taken a life of their own. The global movement for peace education is one example. Others however, have faded.
I find myself interested in obscure and forgotten elements of a culture of peace; those that are explicitly associated with peace culture but not widespread enough to maintain any coordinated involvement. The use of festivals for building a culture of peace is one of these approaches.
You won’t find any peace festival network or coordinating body. You won’t find toolkits or resource guides explaining how people can use festivals to build a culture of peace. But you will find individuals and groups that coordinate festivals to build peace (or justice, or intercommunal harmony). Some act independently while others are operated as projects of larger organizations.
So the best resource we have that might help us to learn how to use festival to build peace culture are examples of festivals for peace.
Peace festivals
So here I have organized for you eight examples of festivals for peace, justice and/or intercommunal harmony. Some use film, some use music and art, while others use storytelling and spoken word. Some use a mix of these. Often some organized discussion and exchange of ideas is included following group viewing of the film, art, poem recitation, etc. Some festivals are a one day event while others take place over a week. Some are virtual and others in physical locations. Some have been around for more than 30 years.
I have included eight examples below with links to find more information. Some are explicitly about peace, peacebuilding or war abolition, while others are indirectly about peace. Many more could be included that have some aspect for the promotion of culture or a social good, but I included only those that are directly relevant to peace. All of these listed below take place annually. There were others that were one-off events that I did not include.
I have organized them into the following categories:
- Film festivals for peace
- Art and music festivals for peace
- Storytelling and spoken word festivals for peace
Film festivals for peace
The most common category here is film festivals for peace. These can be carried out as live events in physical locations or virtually.
The FiSahara International Film Festival via CEAS
FiSahara International Film Festival via CEAS is a celebration that uplifts and empowers refugees from the Western Sahara through film. This annual event includes film screenings, skill-building activities, hands-on media workshops, and interactions with international filmmakers. The event supports young refugees to become the architects of their own narratives, addressing critical issues and igniting change within their communities through the transformative power of media and film.
The Global Peace Film Festival
The Global Peace Film Festival is an annual gathering in Orlando, Florida. Created with a mission to champion peace and environmental consciousness through the art of film, the festival has screened over 800 powerful films from all corners of the globe, ranging from insightful documentaries to impactful short films and narrative masterpieces. They host engaging panel discussions featuring filmmakers, special guests, and local activists passionate about the transformative power of cinema. The festival includes screening and discussion of films with anti-war narratives and associated themes that contribute towards a more harmonious world.
The Slum Film Festival
The Slum Film Festival is a community-based annual film event featuring stories from, by, and about people living in urban slums. It empowers filmmakers from slums around the world to share their stories, aspirations, and struggles, creating a platform for representation and empowerment. The Slum Film Festival inspires solidarity, understanding, and action towards a more equitable and inclusive society for all.
The World BEYOND War Film Festival
The World BEYOND War Film Festival showcases films that challenge war narratives, spark conversations, and inspire collective action towards a world free from war. Each year the film festival focuses on a different theme. They host online screenings and discussions on Zoom. The link is for their festival in 2024 that had the theme of ‘Women and War.’ Each year, the festival has a different link.
Art and music festivals for peace
Two great examples of art and music festivals for peace.
The Tumaini Festival
The Tumaini Festival takes place within the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. It uses the power of entertainment and artistic expression to foster intercultural harmony, mutual understanding, and peaceful coexistence between refugees and their host community. It is a large-scale cultural event created and run by refugees in collaboration with the surrounding host community, that serves as a platform for advocacy on refugee rights.
The Elevate Festival
The Elevate Festival is an annual event that includes art and music to spark discussion around important social issues associated with peace and justice. Around 7,000 people gather in Graz, Austria, to attend the five-day festival to enjoy music lineups and literature performances, as well as interdisciplinary political discussions, lectures, and workshops. Amongst the guests are human rights experts, climate researchers and activists from all over the world, who gather in Graz once a year with musicians and artists, illuminating important issues of our shared future.
Storytelling and spoken word festivals for peace
Two examples here on the use of storytelling, poetry and spoken word festivals for pace.
The National Storytelling Festival
The National Storytelling Festival is an annual event hosted by the International Storytelling Center (ISC) and held in Jonesborough, Tennessee. It is a celebration of diverse voices and narratives coming together to inspire, educate, and unite. Through the art of storytelling, this festival creates a space where storytellers and listeners from all walks of life can connect, learn, and embrace the power of shared experiences. With renowned storytellers taking the stage, the National Storytelling Festival promotes creativity and empathy, fostering a community dedicated to the promotion of peace, justice and understanding through the art of storytelling.
Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín (Medellín Poetry Festival)
The Medellín Poetry Festival is a weeklong event hosted each year in Medellín, Colombia since 1991. Featuring the active participation of over 100 poets from nearly 60 countries, the festival aims to inspire reflection on urgent global issues and to promote social engagement of participants and city residents. Embracing poetry as a force for peace, justice and change, the festival addresses a range of topics crises ranging from climate emergencies to the devastating consequences of war.
You can launch your own peace festival
I hope these examples are helpful for you. I think that there are many of we peacebuilders out there in the world who have the potential to use the approach of festivals for peace. Many of us work with organizations that have the capability of organizing festivals or we are involved with groups and networks that can do so.
The examples above were selected to provide you with some inspiration and ideas for planning a peace festival. Use your creativity and your connections and your peace festival will be a great success, and will ultimately contribute to building a more peaceful and just world.
If you found this article helpful and want to find more blog posts like this mapping organizations that build peace across a wide array of themes be sure to check out our Resources page!
If there is a festival that is missing on this list and you think it should be added, please submit it at the link HERE. I periodically update my resource posts and use these inputs to help me.
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