John Kanu is from Sierra Leone and he needs to come to Croatia in June. Why? Well, he was born there, in Sierra Leone, in a small village. From there he went to Oxford as a first among his fellow townsmen. He met lots of living people there, but he was profoundly struck by one who was already dead for almost one century - G. K. Chesterton. 

Oh, wait, you wanted to know why he needs to come to Croatia? It seems that there are some people who he has to meet there, too. And it seems that those people share the same awe towards that same dead guy, G. K. Chesterton.

So, what is so special about that British author that you are now considering (seriously considering, we hope) to fund a trip from Sierra Leone to Croatia? A book wouldn’t be enough to explain it, but we’ll try to say it in one word: distributism. Maybe it doesn’t ring a bell for you, but let’s just say it is a model based on principles of Catholic social teaching which favors economic mechanisms such as small-scale cooperatives and family businesses, instead of ‘big state’ or ‘big business’. Sounds interesting? John thought so, too. But instead of just thinking about it, he actually founded Sierra Leone Chesterton Center and started organizing small self-sustaining communities (distributism is all about communities and zero about communism) through agricultural and artisanal cooperatives. These communities are bringing new life to heavily industrialized mined-out landscape and new hope to people in Sierra Leone.

So far, so good, but you’re still puzzled about why John needs to come to Croatia? It’s easy: we want to hear his first hand experience and there is no better way to do it than the 2nd ChestFest, a festival dedicated to G. K. Chesterton, organized by Croatian Chestertonian Club (that’s us!) in June 2019. It premiered last year and was a huge success! (Don’t take us for our word, here’s a video channel)  
This year we wish to deepen our knowledge, focus on building connections and acquaint more people with G. K. Chesterton, whose ideas influenced Tolkien, Lewis and many more, who wrote poems and economic dissertations, who entered into lots of quarrels, but never insulted anyone, who was admired by his opponents and who is loved by so many today, who was ferocious and humble, sharp and witty, always taking himself lightly despite weighing almost 140 kg. 
Chances are people from Sierra Leone couldn’t point Croatia on a map and vice versa, but here we are, asking for your help to connect these two dots on the planet in order to paint a cheerful, brightful and colourful picture of this year’s ChestFest! 

P.S. You, too, are invited!