This year, the "Būtent!" festival will surprise you with its versatile discussion spaces

The Būtent festival, which brings together thousands of participants every year, is a free, open, non-political event where every visitor will undoubtedly find a speaker, expert, topic of interest, or idea they care about. This year, the festival's discussion topics will touch on the relationship between culture and democracy, social networks, education, the fight against discrimination against foreigners, resistance to misinformation and other most pressing issues. The festival program will be published soon.

As Arnas Marcinkus, one of the organizers of the "Būtent!" festival, says, this year's event will be exceptional - many significant innovations await the participants.

"This year the festival will last one day instead of two. A focused program allows each discussion to be more focused and of even higher quality. In addition, this year's event is moving from the beginning of autumn to the end of summer, so we expect great weather and even more visitors who will be able to actively participate in the discussions: speak, ask questions, chat informally with speakers and experts", notes A. Marcinkus.

Will touch on value issues

Not for the first time, the association "Creative Connections", which is participating in the festival, says that this year it will invite discussions about the relationship between culture and democracy, social networks, and critical thinking. "Culture is a question for all of us, about all of our values. We want every discussion to be interdisciplinary and include as many different aspects as possible, because culture should not be closed in some compartment or frame", Milda Laužikaitė, representative of "Creative Connections", shared the ideas of the program prepared by the association.

In addition, the association plans to organize an open space principle discussion at the end of the program, during which everyone will be able to propose topics that are relevant to them, and share insights related to them.

Inclusive acting format and artificial intelligence in schools

VšĮ "Vilnius education progress center" ("Edu Vilnius") will offer the educational space "SCHOOL: SITS, 2.0" at the festival, appealing to the phrase "Sėsk, 2!" and will invite discussion not only about the schools of the present, but also about the schools of the future - 2.0 version.

"We believe that such a festival must have a space dedicated to education - a topic that is constantly in the center of public attention and has been chosen as one of the axes of the vision "Lithuania 2050". There are always enough hot topics in education, but we invite you to talk about those that seem most relevant to the general public at the present time. Throughout the day, we will discuss the emotional climate in the school, the lack of teachers, we will invite you to examine the communication between parents and teachers in an engaging role-playing format, we will ask how artificial intelligence will change the school", says Unė Kaunaitė, director of Edu Vilnius.

Will encourage you to express your opinion

The National Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations in the discussion space "Citizens' Square" will be dedicated to examining topics relevant to today's civil society and will encourage citizens to express their opinions as well.

"The importance of citizenship and active people for the state, the modern relationship between a young person and the state, the challenges of adolescence and ways to survive them, the fight against discrimination against other nationalities, resistance to misinformation - these are just some of the topics that visitors to the Būtent festival will be able to discuss in the "Citizens' Space", he said. Laura Tatarėlytė, coordinator of initiatives of the national NGO coalition.

The organizers remind that the "Būtent!" festival is a family-friendly event. Children from 3 years old will be able to spend time in the equipped children's area, where they will be looked after by professional animators. The discussion festival will offer visitors not only to engage in serious public discussions, but also to participate in various entertainment activities, so participants will be able not only to listen, but also have a fun and meaningful time.

The festival is already on August 26. will be held in the center of Birštonas, in Vytautas Park. You can find more information about the event here .