ZEG Fest 2024 & a Message of Solidarity! ????

Friends,?

Many of you are watching the events in Georgia, where tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating against the government. The pictures are dramatic and rightly so:?the future of Georgia as a sovereign, free state is being decided now.?

It was always our plan to announce this week that ZEG Fest 2024 tickets are now available for purchase. We are excited for the festival which is going ahead as planned on June 21-23. But we would also like to share the following with you:?

To everyone in Georgia: we declare full solidarity with the protesters who are defending the very values that make events like ZEG Fest possible. People are demonstrating because the Georgian government is trying to pass legislation that is a carbon copy of the Russian law that the Kremlin has used to crush all free expression in Russia over the past decade. Since then, similar laws have throttled the freedoms of people in countries like Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua and Hungary to name just a few. Right now, Georgians are at the forefront of the global backlash against creeping authoritarianism. Full solidarity!?

To our partners: we are grateful for your support in making ZEG 2024 possible. We have an amazing lineup of speakers and the current protests add a real urgency to the important conversations that are planned for the Festival.?

To our speakers and ZEG Fest attendees coming from abroad: we want to assure you that we are monitoring the situation very closely and we are working with our partners to ensure that the festival venues are secure and that everyone is safe. Right now, we have no reason to be concerned about our ability to hold the festival in a safe, friendly and collaborative environment. In fact, we hope that you find yourself more excited about the visit. What’s playing out in the streets of Tbilisi is fuelled by the very forces that are reshaping communities all across the world.?

If you have any concerns or questions please get in touch at: [email protected]

ZEG Fest is an independent platform founded by Coda Media and Impact Hub Tbilisi. We do not take funding from the government or anyone who tries to influence the content of our programming. ZEG Fest is all about conversations that connect people across geographies, professions and ideologies. But to have these conversations we need to have basic freedoms. We are grateful to the protesters in the streets of Tbilisi for defending our ability to do our work.?

With love,

The ZEG Fest Team