A group of people standing outdoors holding signs with heart and exclamation mark symbols in front of a large funnel-shaped structure on a sunny day.

Festivals as Social Innovation Incubators

In this EU-funded project, experts on festivals and youth work joined forces to create a tailored suite of resources, so that festivals can realize their potential as platforms for social innovation. FUSION enables young people/organizations to use festivals as a steppingstone to implement their own ideas, products and technologies for the benefit of society.

Festivals can act as social innovation incubators that empower young people to realize their potential to change society and inspire them to tackle social issues in innovative ways beyond the scope of the event itself. FUSION helps festivals and youth organizations to collaborate and unlock their potential for social innovation by providing them with a tailored suite of resources. These include

  • a good-practice guide, with examples of innovative social projects at festivals across Europe
  • a toolbox for project development that helps festivals and organization like NGOs and volunteer organizations cooperate better and develop socially innovative projects together (including online educational resources)
  • alliances that developed action plans – the alliances brought together actors from the fields of festivals, education, innovation and youth work for the first time. The action plans explain step-by-step how people can create their own alliances

All resources are available in English, German, Spanish, Danish and Turkish.

Take a Stand was one of the six project partners, while YOUROPE supported the project as an associated partner. YOUROPE member Roskilde Festival were also part of the project team. YOUROPE members Superbloom, Ruisrock, We Love Green, Sziget, Exit and Pohoda are featured in the resources.

This project finished in May 2023, but its outputs (see links above or related posts below) are still relevant and available.

More info: https://fusion-project.com/

Disclaimer:

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The author is solely responsible for this publication (communication) and the Commission accepts no responsibility for any use may be made of the information contained therein. In compliance of the new GDPR framework, please note that the Partnership will only process your personal data in the sole interest and purpose of the project and without any prejudice to your rights.

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