The 11th edition of Freedom Games held in mid-October in Lodz, Poland, gathered people from the world of culture, sports, business, and public life from Poland and abroad, as well as a wide audience.
The Freedom Games are a meeting of people curious about the world and hungry for new ideas – an interdisciplinary festival whose most important goal is to create a creative space for conversation. The slogan of this year’s edition was City. Europe. Future. The event program included nearly 130 events: panel discussions, round table speeches and debates, several meetings with authors, concerts, as well as the Living Library, an improvised performance, and an urban game.
Altogether, 949 speakers appeared on the stage, including former Prime Minister of Belgium Guy Verhofstadt, Speaker of the Polish Senate, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska; Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Hanna Wróblewska, Polish Minister of Equality Katarzyna Kotula, Polish Minister of Finance Andrzej Domański, Polish Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar, Polish Minister of the European Union Adam Szłapka, and Polish Minister of Interior and Administration Tomasz Siemoniak, along with numerous MPs, MEPs, presidents and city mayors and mayoresses; business people, creators of culture: Andrzej, Sapkowski, Dorota Masłowska, Agnieszka Holland, Ewa Puszczyńska, Maria Peszek, SIKSA, Artur Rojek, Karol Paciorek, Jakub Rużyłło, Agnieszka Grochowska, and Jan Holoubek; representatives of science and academia: Carlos Moreno, Yascha Mounk, Edward Reynolds, Wojciech Sadurski; leaders of influential non-governmental organizations, human rights activists: Danuta Wałęsa, Nazanin Boniadi, Janina Ochojska; commentators, podcasters: Adam Michnik, Dariusz Rosiak, Łukasz Pawłowski, Karolina Lewicka, Maciej Głogowski, Piotr Stelmach; athletes: Marcin Gortat and Tomasz Łapiński, and many others.
The festival was organized by the Liberté! Foundation. – an interdisciplinary cultural and social organization and think tank operating in Lodz, Poland.
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is the Main Partner of the festival.
Find out more about the last edition: www.igrzyskawolnosci.pl/en