Ausmaa to expand Estonia’s Opinion Festival year-round

Harri Ausmaa, who will take over leadership of Estonia’s Opinion Festival after this year’s event, wants to make it more influential throughout the year and focus more on young people and discussion culture, ERR’s Vikerraadio reported.

The festival will take place in Paide next weekend. Ausmaa said on the Vikerhommik programme that leading it was a natural continuation of his previous work. His connection with the festival began while he was running Paide Theatre, which became an important partner of the event.

He also recalled that Paide Theatre itself grew out of a discussion held at the festival about whether Paide needed its own city theatre.

“Paide Theatre began with a discussion at the Opinion Festival, where people asked whether Paide needed its own city theatre. That is where everything started to unfold,” Ausmaa said.

He is drawn to the festival’s opportunity to shape Estonia’s discussion and opinion culture.

“Culture is not only a way to pass time or a form of entertainment. Culture, including opinion and discussion culture, affects how people understand one another, how communities function and what kind of society we live in,” he said.

Ausmaa believes substantive dialogue has declined in Estonian society in recent years. Rapid change and uncertainty are prompting people to hold more firmly to their positions, while monologues often dominate instead of discussions.

“This is where the role, uniqueness and importance of the Opinion Festival become clear. In times like these, discussion culture must be maintained and positive scenarios for the future created. That is what I want to achieve with the Opinion Festival,” he said.

One of Ausmaa’s main changes would be for the festival to operate more actively throughout the rest of the year. This would include new discussion formats, training, educational materials and the involvement of different groups.

“The festival’s most visible expression as an organisation is the two-day event in August, but discussion culture must be developed all year round,” he said.

Ausmaa said the public often fails to notice that the festival’s discussions later lead to sectoral development plans and other practical initiatives. To make this impact more visible, the festival is developing a participation and feedback model to assess the effect of its discussions.

He also considers involving young people an important area for development. Discussion formats should be created together with young people, and the festival should address issues that genuinely matter to them, he said.

Attendance at the Opinion Festival has remained at around 10,000 in recent years. Ausmaa does not expect the festival to grow significantly in visitor numbers because Paide’s physical capacity places a natural limit on attendance.

Instead, he wants to focus on quality, test new discussion formats, use technological solutions and bring the festival to new locations in Paide.

“I am motivated by the fact that the Opinion Festival is one trusted space where people dare to meet. A place where we invite people to meet and offer a platform even when they do not think alike, but where it is possible to listen. The form and method of discussion can be chosen according to the conversation a question requires at that moment, rather than according to how things have always been done,” Ausmaa said.