Smultringfestivalen: a national Doughnut festival!

Who we are

We are Smultring Tønsberg (Tønsberg Donut), a grassroots network, based in Tønsberg, Norway. 

Our purpose is to inspire a new economic practice in Tønsberg that can handle the major challenges we face in the 21st century and to spread knowledge from the international network DEAL (Doughnut Economics Action Lab) and contribute with Norwegian experiences on how the Donut Economy can be put to use in a municipality.

The Donut Festival

The annual nasjonale Smultringfestivalen (national Donut festival) is the most important annual meeting point in the new, unifying social project to develop a Norwegian Donut economy.

Read about the 2022 festival here
Read about the upcoming 2023 festival here

As a society, we are faced with major, existential challenges in the world at the same time that we do not act in line with the seriousness. It gives people powerlessness!

We therefore need a unifying vision with a new goal for the economy: "Quality of life for everyone within the tolerance limits of the planet". The donut in Smultringökonomi is a powerful visual symbol of this goal.

We are competing with a prevailing economy that has made us dependent on growth based on jobs and the welfare state and that there are no other alternatives.

We therefore need to create a new, unifying social project that responds to the objections - a Norwegian donut economy. To "paint" an increasingly clear picture of this economy and from different perspectives is a collaborative process which thus has its most important annual meeting point in the national Donut Festival. From more to better!

We organized the first national Donut Festival 16 - 18 September 2022 in Tønsberg. In 2023 it will also be in September, 21-23. The festival will become annual, grow and set the agenda in Norway for a different and liberating economic thinking than the one we are trapped in now. The goal for the economy can no longer be take-team-use-throw, but quality of life for everyone within nature's tolerance limit! We hope you will join us on the journey!

In the festival we heard from lots of inspiring speakers and had workshop on Doughnut Economics ideas and tools, such as the four lenses (below).
 

We need to gather all good forces that want to contribute to creating a social development that brings us out of all the crises. We need commitment and contributions from citizens, voluntary organisations, political parties, businesses and religious communities. We need to inspire each other, highlight good examples and create hope. Instead of focusing on all the problems, we need to focus on the society we want to create.

Shifting attention towards a desired future will open the way for us to put important values ​​at the forefront of our commitment, and in the work to develop the sustainable society. The work to be done is also too extensive and complex to be left to a few actors. Everyone must join. Everyone can contribute in their own way. The way we look after our gardens can be made more sustainable, together we can bring the bumblebees back to the cities, we can create magnificent buildings from recycled materials and increase the wealth of care and culture.

The donut festival will be an event that brings together everyone who is concerned with life, vitality and vitality. We welcome various types of organizations and initiatives to present their ideas and proposed solutions. Perhaps you come from a company that wants to show how you have taken responsibility for the UN's sustainability goals. Or are you a small farmer who has ideas and solutions for what future agriculture should look like?

We have chosen to call the event a festival as we want to release diverse ways of presenting different solutions, diverse ways of sharing experiences - or engaging an audience. Stands, exhibitions, theatre, small and large workshops, cultural elements, conversation of curiosity in joint learning sessions and lectures can be some of the activities.

To make this happen, we need support and commitment from all people in Norway - and the networks they are part of. All the shades in the Donut picture have not been drawn yet. The question is:

How can we together develop a nature-imitating, regenerative and redistributive economy and help others to do the same?

Do you want to be part of this? Then contact us!

What we've learned

It's all about building relationships of appreciation!

We starting by building a core team and used appreciative inquiry to discover people's talents, aspirations, interests and this built a team (from 2 people to a team of over 20) that acted in all things with great appreciation, energy and enthusiasm.

This enabled us to organise in a distributed way, with people going where their energy was and be trusted to take actions and choices for the good of the festival - a group working with the catering, a group working with registration, a group working with the workshop elements.

As a result, the festival was also appreciative and welcoming - there was always time to meet someone, greet them, learn about them and hear where their interests lie, where their experience is, what their aspirations and ideas are, what questions they may have.

This created a joyful atmosphere of appreciation where we were able to build so many relationships through dialogue and enjoyable time together - so important in this collective work - and we ended up building a community where people could come and be, play and relax. Note that we use the dialogue rather than discussion, as we believe dialogue involves being open and listening where discussion can be noisy and disruptive.

People said 'this was magic!' and 'this has been mind blowing!' There were lots of smiles, hugs, laughter, crying, music and a feeling of hope and joy.

When we do this, we can hold many differences, where every perspective is valued, everyone's experience and talents are valued.

We have to create a new economy together, and this method feels like it could create the breadth and depth of relations we need.