Posted: 8th May 2025

Future Narratives Festival: A Journey Together Begins

With preparations for the Future Narratives Festival at their final stages, the mood of cooperation, imagination, and solidarity is already in the air. At a recent online session, more than 30 delegates from youth movements and creative initiatives from countries in Europe gathered online to share, introduce themselves, and reflect on the journey ahead of them.

Building Community Across Borders

During the session, participants took turns introducing themselves in an informal but meaningful round of presentations. From high school students and university visitors to youth workers, artists, and coordinators, the crowd was as diverse and dense as this European gathering.

For some, it was a return to a familiar project; for some, a first step into a new and inspiring venture. What united everyone was a shared sense of purpose and enthusiasm for the week-long festival in Italy.

From Local Action to International Exchange

Future Narratives Festival is the final stage of a multi-stage project that began with national trainings in four nations. The trainings offered instruments for youth workers to learn about future thinking, media engagement, and storytelling among young people.

Every national group has subsequently organized their own workshops and selected participants to go on behalf of their nations to the international event. They will go to Italy not just to participate, but to co-design.

This week’s schedule is filled with active and interactive activities to stimulate creativity, cultural awareness, and community participation. Youth workers will lead practical hands-on workshops, giving participants the chance to learn skills and communicate through guided activities. Intergroup sessions throughout the week will facilitate rich intercultural exchange, fostering dialogue and co-operation among varied participants. Participants will also carry out city storytelling researches, discovering local tales and retelling them through participants’ perspectives. The week will end in a vibrant public festival day, when the community comes to experience an inspiring programme of performances and innovative presentations developed throughout the week.

Conscious Participation and Creative Responsibility

This festival is not merely about content—it is about intent. Borrowing from the principles of conscious marketing and reflective media practice, the festival challenges practitioners to examine how they make a contribution to the story.

“Where there is our intention, there is our contribution.
Where there is our contribution, there is our legacy.”

The festival invites every participant to reflect on their impact. What they give, what they choose to say, and how they work together.

Themes that Emerged: A Collective Reflection

Participants were asked at the close of the online session to jot down a single word that captures what the festival – and the concept of “future narratives” – is about for them. What they wrote was full of emotional resonance and hopeful in tone:

Hope – a response to global uncertainty

Many realities – coming together

Relationships – building bridges across cultures and perspectives

Co-creation – being part of something beautiful and meaningful

Guts – to express ideas, think creatively, and speak out

Tools – seeing stories as a change process

City – examining a new places as a source of meaning creation

Happiness – celebrating shared process of joy

New experience – engaging in meaningful transnational exchange

Eye-opener – learning insights through shared knowledge

Life lesson – learning that shapes individual and professional growth

Looking Ahead

The Future Narratives Festival is not only about honoring youth creativity, but also about equipping participants with ways to reflect, envision, and act. It is a zone of transformation in all aspects: personal, social, and cultural.

As the teams meet together in advance of their face-to-face encounter, it is one thing for certain: the process has begun. Through preparation in common, through sharing stories, through intention, participants are laying the foundation for a festival that aspires to leave an indelible mark on communities, on Europe, and on each participant.