The Freedom Theatre Festival is an international theatre festival that brings together artists working in contexts where freedom of expression is shaped by different social and political realities.

In many places, theatre remains one of the few spaces where complex or sensitive experiences can be shared publicly. This also makes it a fragile space.

The festival focuses on contemporary theatre and performance that engages with questions of power, memory, identity, and resistance. Many of the works draw on documentary material — personal testimonies, archival sources, and lived experience.

The programme is curated through ongoing research and travel. The curators follow developments in different regions and select works directly, building each edition step by step.

Recent editions of the festival have brought together artists from a wide range of countries.

In 2025, the programme included artists from Ukraine, Pakistan, Türkiye, Georgia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Estonia.
In 2023, participating artists came from Uzbekistan, Chile, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine.
In 2021, the festival presented work from Poland, Hungary, Romania, Tajikistan, and Russia/Austria.

Narva is the ideal place to host an international festival focused on these themes. Situated on Estonia’s eastern border, the city is a meeting point between two different worlds — where the free world ends from one perspective and begins from another. Narva is located in Ida-Viru County, on the Narva River, along the European Union’s eastern border with Russia. As Estonia’s third-largest city and its autumn capital, Narva embodies centuries of intertwined cultures, languages, and histories.

The city’s history has been shaped by shifting borders and political realities, the traces of which remain visible in everyday life today. In Narva, questions of identity, language, and belonging are not merely abstract topics of discussion, but part of people’s lived experience. This is precisely what makes Narva such a meaningful setting for the international Vabaduse Festival — a place where questions surrounding freedom, identity, and the points of encounter between different worlds take on particular significance.

Discover Narva: visitnarva.ee

The productions will be performed in different places in Narva. The heart of the festival is the Vaba Lava Narva Theatre Centre at Linda 2.

The organiser

The festival is organised by Vaba Lava, an independent theatre and performing arts centre operating in Tallinn and Narva.

Its work is centred on creative freedom, experimentation, and international collaboration. Vaba Lava develops its programme in dialogue with contemporary social processes, often bringing topical and documentary-based works to the stage. See more here : www.vabalava.ee

GalLERY

Vabaduse Festival 2025: GALERII

Vabaduse Festival 2023: GALERII

Vabaduse Festival 2021: GALERII