Listening to the Lough – a day of democracy, care and imagination

This is one of the festival's Pay What You Can events.

Listening to Lough Neagh is an all-day gathering of reflection, creativity, learning and democratic experimentation, responding to the ecological and political crisis facing Lough Neagh. Convened by Involve as part of the wider conversation about a potential Citizens’ Assembly for Lough Neagh, the day invites people to come together to listen - to each other, to the lough itself, and to what this moment demands of democracy.

The day opens gently, with time to arrive, ground, and connect. The Crescent’s main space will be held as a welcoming environment, with tea and coffee, a soft soundscape of water, birds and archival audio, and a visual prompt inviting participants to reflect on what Lough Neagh means to them. Involve will offer a short welcome, setting out why a day of listening to the Lough matters, how it links to the evolving Assembly conversation, and how participants are invited to take part at their own pace. Care will be emphasised throughout: this is a space where grief, anger, love and hope for the lough are all welcome.

The morning’s activities (10-11AM) start with Lough Neagh as teacher, a family-friendly strand led by Karin Eyben. Through play, imagination and embodied learning, this session introduces democratic and ecological thinking in ways that are accessible and joyful. Activities may include sensory listening to land and water, creative role-play exploring who speaks for Lough Neagh - reeds, fish, birds, people - and making messages for the future through flags, postcards or small sculptures. Creations and reflections will be displayed and shared throughout the day.

Creative activities will be followed by an unconference (11AM – 1:15PM): an open, participant-led space to surface questions, ideas, tensions and lived experiences relating to Lough Neagh. After a short introduction to the unconference format, participants will shape the agenda themselves, hosting and joining self-organised conversations. Prompt questions will include: what does democratic failure look like in the context of Lough Neagh? Which voices - human and more-than-human - are missing from decision-making? What would meaningful accountability look like? How can we ensure that future generations are central to decision making about the Lough? Insights will be captured, feeding directly into the afternoon’s deliberative work.

A shared BYO lunch provides time for informal connection, rest and reflection. Creative stations remain open, alongside optional quiet spaces for listening or viewing short films, poetry or archival material connected to the lough.

In the afternoon (2-5PM), participants are invited into the heart of the day: a Lough Neagh Assembly – taster session. This is a hands-on, facilitated deliberative experience designed to give people a tangible sense of how a Citizens’ Assembly for Lough Neagh could work in practice. Focusing on a specific issue - such as ownership, rights, or responsibility - participants will hear perspectives, deliberate together, and work towards draft principles for a democratic future for the lough. Reflections and outputs from this session will directly inform ongoing advocacy and future Assembly design.

Stay to eat, rest and reset the space, and join us for the companion evening conversation at 6pm: Stories, struggle and democratic futures ()

Participants will leave with more than information. They will have a felt experience of deliberative democracy, new relationships and shared language, creative artefacts and stories that can support advocacy, and a clearer sense of what a Lough Neagh Assembly could be - and why it matters now.

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Host or Publisher Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics