“Wars are started in the minds of people long before they are ever fought on the battlefield, so it is in the minds of people where peaceful change needs to begin.”

The inaugural World Peace Festival Berlin 2010 will be the largest peace event in history, taking place at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on August 27, 28 and 29 2010. Backed by the United Nations and an impressive list of partners from the worlds of peace building, politics, entertainment and industry, this three-day event will mark a turning point in the history of conflict prevention and resolution.

Unlike other peace festivals that have gone before, the WPF is not simply an awareness generating vehicle, rather it is a call and a pathway to action. This event will teach people how to be more at peace with themselves, others and the environment, by sharing Tools for Peace™ with a global audience. Tools for Peace™ are simple, practical exercises, already used by master peace builders around the world, for implementing peace on a personal level.

The goal of the festival is to create sociological peaceful change, by starting with individual peaceful change. Through the medium of art, music, dance, sport and the spoken word, people will learn the real causes of personal and interpersonal conflict, and be empowered to recognise and choose real and tenable alternatives to violence in any context.

The festival features arts, sports and cultural events, including photography exhibitions by Russell James and Chip Duncan, as well as a WPF Film Festival. On the second day, there will be a seven-hour music concert with the title of “All 1 Tribe”, where world-renowned, global performers will play alongside indigenous artists. Top performers currently being approached include Beyonce, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and U2; indigenous performers are being chosen by a team led by the Emmy-award winning musician Peter Buffett. 

A series of seminars and conferences will also be held over the weekend, hosted by Nobel Peace Prize winners, and experts in the field of conflict resolution and transformative thinking. Some of the confirmed speakers include Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu, Lech Walesa and Rigoberta Menchu.

The World Peace Festival is not a once off event; effective action and sustainability are the founding tenets of this movement. That is what makes it different.