The conversation festival “Lampa” became known to wider Latvian society in 2015, becoming one of most eye-catching sets of intellectual events in summer in Latvia with an extensive programme and open, cooperation-oriented environment for various public and non-governmental organizations.
Similar democracy festivals have taken place in Scandinavian states, becoming a significant platform for meaningful negotiations and discussions, facilitating positive changes in society. Organizers of the festival emphasize, that “Lampa” serves as encouragement to show interest about these processes and not to be afraid to start a discussion with leaders of opinions. “Lampa” is an opportunity to realize, that everyone of us can influence nationally important decisions and together solve complicated issues, which we have frequently got used to “leave” to someone else – politicians, heads of institutions, bosses or neighbours”.
In this year the festival celebrates its third anniversary, and the place of meeting for those who want to speak about significant and important issues in Latvia, Europe and worldwide, remains the same – the park of Cesis Castle, on 30 June and 1 July. It has to be mentioned, that entry for the festival visitors is free of charge.
Referring to the invitation of the Ministry of Finance to participate in the discussions festival within the framework of the closing event of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism programme, also the Ministry of Justice as the manager of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 planning period programme LV08 “Reform of the Latvian Correctional Services and Police Detention Centres” in cooperation with implementing bodies of programmes LV08/1 “Increasing the Application of Alternatives to Imprisonment (Including Possible Pilot Project on Electronic Surveillance)”, LV08/2 “Establishment of a New Prison Block in Olaine Prison, Including Construction and Training of Staff” and LV08/3 “Improving the Standards of Latvian State Police Detention Centres”, which are the State Probation Service, Latvian Prison Administration and the State Police, will invite festival visitors to find out, participate in discussions and cooperate during both festival days.
Activities, which promote negotiations culture between society and authorities/organizations will take place in two formats – in tents – stages of festival organizers (for example, the largest stage of the festival – “DOTS”) and in tents of authorities/organizations (for example, the “Tent of Opportunities” (“Iespēju telts”)). The discussion “Execution of Criminal Penalty in Latvia – for Revenge or Justice?”, organized by the State Probation Service and the Latvian Prison Administration, is recognized as one of the central events of the festival and will take place on “DOTS” stage on 30 June 2017, from 14:00-15:30. The discussion will involve both professionals (the Head of the State Probation Service Mihails Papsujevičs, the Project Manager of the Latvian Prison Administration Māris Luste) and volunteers (Rube Goldberg philosopher Alberto Di Gennaro, rapper Ansis), who have got involved in initiatives of the State Probation Service and the Latvian Prison Administration in various ways, and also widely known persons not related to criminal justice (founder of the street culture and sports movement “Ghetto Games” Raimonds Elbakjans). The discussion will be managed by the festival moderator Aidis Tomsons.
After the discussion on “DOTS” stage, the State Probation Service and representatives of Latvian Prison Administration will continue the started discussion in the “Tent of Opportunities” starting from 16:00 to 17:30. During this discussion, participants will have an opportunity to become acquainted with operation of the system of Latvian correctional services, and improvements and changes in the system. In its turn, on 1 July 2017, from 16:00 to 17:30, in the “Tent of Opportunities”, representatives of the State Police in the activity “State Police – Myth and Truth” will dispel myths about the police work, acquainting with the detention process – from the moment of offence to confinement in a cell, and visitors will hear the most interesting stories from daily job of detention centres.
Programme of the festival is available here: http://www.festivalslampa.lv/lv/programma/
Everyone is kindly invited to visit the conversation festival “Lampa”!
Subscribe to news
Receive notifications of the latest contests, news and news events in programs that are important to you!
Report Irregularities
Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway have a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and mismanagement in the EEA and Norway Grants. We strongly encourage you to share your concerns and report suspected irregularities.