Wonderland held its Erasmus SPACE project multiplier event as part of the city festival in Mistelbach, one of the town’s biggest events, which attracts around 8,000 people each year. The festival also attracts many young people from the city and the surrounding region. It hosts a variety of stalls offering entertainment and educational activities each year, such as a public presentation of a simulated operation by firefighters and emergency paramedics. The festival is an important social gathering for the local community in Mistelbach. However, despite its importance as a social gathering place, especially for young people, the event does not offer many free activities or spaces to simply hang out in. It was in this context that Wonderland set up its pop-up intervention, which was intended to provide a consumption-free space.
The set-up consisted of a movable wagon developed in another project (ProjectSpace), which was generously provided to Wonderland by the youth group. It showcased materials developed throughout the SPACE Erasmus+ project, including the Placemaking Toolkit, reports, a short film about the public space intervention in Mistelbach in spring, the e-learning platform, and the website. Publications were handed out and visitors were informed about SPACE’s activities. The space was intended as an open forum for discussion and networking for anyone interested in youth and placemaking initiatives, so the team ensured they linked their work to other existing projects and organisations rather than presenting it in isolation.
Around the wagon, there was a table tennis table, games laid out, seating, and snacks provided to offer a free place to stay — an offer that was especially popular with younger generations. To engage with young people, Wonderland also ran a short survey, asking them to share their favourite place in return for a small sweet. This helped to open up further discussions. Beyond the conversations, many passers-by also noticed the space, looking at it with interest from a distance.
The group of stakeholders who engaged with the project was diverse. One large group consisted of young people, some of whom had taken part in the community workshops and were interested in seeing the finished film. Seeing themselves in the film and showing it to their friends was a small but meaningful form of empowerment. The benches, games and table tennis table were also popular with the young people.
Wonderland also connected with local stakeholders, including Claudia Pfeffer (the City Councillor for Culture) and the mayor. Another relevant stakeholder was You:Best, a youth organisation with which the team had previously collaborated. Many parents were interested in the project too, and began to understand the links between the community workshop interventions and the other activities carried out as part of SPACE.
