![]() The DMV Democracy Festival (DemFest) aims to promote civic engagement, foster collaboration, and make democracy more enjoyable through a financially sustainable, family-friendly event in Washington, DC. Taking place on October 26, 2024, it will feature activities like discussions on democracy, performances, games, workshops, and a youth citizen assembly on mental health. Tickets can be purchased online, and participants, including performers and volunteers, are encouraged to apply in advance. The festival is designed to widen participation in democracy while also being a fun and engaging experience for all ages. Read the blog post below and learn more here. Release: The DMV Democracy Festival
DemFest tickets are available for purchase online here. Sign-up to volunteer here. Donate here $50, $100, $250 or what you can afford to help pay for DemFest labor, rentals, food, printing, prizes, and other costs. Click here for other simple ways you can support DemFest. Summary & Purpose: Widen and deepen civic engagement, foster collaboration, and make democracy more fun, less fractious with a financially sustainable, youth and family-friendly democracy festival in the Washington, DC capital region. Context: If we want to make democracy more engaging for more people, rather than boring or divisive, why aren’t we investing in democracy festivals? If democracy is so important to Americans, why don’t we have democracy festivals every year in towns and cities across the country? If Washington DC is the capital of our country, and democracy is central to American freedom, why does DC have folk life, kite flying, and cherry blossom festivals, but no democracy festival? In the mid to late 1800s, American democracy was often highly participatory and fun, involving parades, rallies, music, public speeches and debates, culminating in elections with some of the highest voter turnout in U.S. history. Democracy then was also conflictual, corrupt and exclusionary (e.g., women and people of color were often or always barred from participating), so progressive reformers gradually remade American politics into what it is now: relatively orderly, peaceful, inclusive, yet also less fun. Can we make democracy fun again, without spurring conflict, corruption and exclusion? Learning Life, a DC-based educational nonprofit, believes we can, in part with democracy festivals, as part of a wider Democracy Learning Community (DLC). And we’re not alone: democracy festivals are spreading in Europe. And, here are five reasons to support democracy festivals. Date & Location Info: The first Democracy Festival in the Washington, DC region will take place at 1:00 to 6:00pm on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at Friendship Collegiate Academy at 4095 Minnesota Avenue NE. Collegiate Academy is ADA-compliant. Goals: Produce a youth and family-friendly DMV Democracy Festival (DemFest) that:
Schedule: For a more detailed draft of the DemFest schedule, including planned topics for discussion, click here. Activities & Deadlines: Festival activities will include all or most of the following, depending on demand. Some activities require application in advance to participate. Applicants should not wait until the deadlines below to apply as spots available are limited, and applicants are accepted on a rolling basis.
For most activities, seating will be in a circle rather than conventional lecture style in order for all participants to see each other, and to encourage interaction. Speakers should serve as facilitators rather than lecturers, providing information then leading participatory discussion rather than lecturing then taking questions. Facilitators should be aware that discussions may include diverse people from the DC area, young to old, little to well-informed, so terminology and abstract terms need to be explained. Tickets, Sponsorship & Volunteering: Tickets are available for purchase online here until 11:59pm on Wednesday, October 23 at $3 for kids 17 and under, and $5 for adults 18 and older. Then, on the festival day, attendees will be able to purchase their tickets at the entrance door with cash, debit or credit card for $5 for kids 17 and under, and $7 for adults 18 and older. Festival goers, including speakers, artists, youth assembly participants, etc. must purchase their tickets to attend. The only exceptions are DemFest tablers/vendors, sponsors and volunteers, whose tickets are included in their tabling fee, sponsorship, or volunteering. Click here for information about sponsoring DemFest as an individual or organization. Click here to apply and learn about volunteering at DemFest. Why do we charge to attend or take part in DemFest? Three reasons. First, many festivals charge for entry, so charging for DemFest entry is consistent with common festival practice. Second, Learning Life’s aim is to make DemFest financially sustainable and hence replicable elsewhere. Ticket revenue is a part of sustainable funding, even if our purposefully low ticket prices far from cover the total festival expenses. Third, democracy is not free. Just like it takes money to run campaigns, elections, courts, legislatures and executive offices, it takes money (plus lots of volunteers!) to pay festival expenses, like staff time, printing, food, awards, rentals, etc. URL: learninglife.info/demfest/
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