Take 5 YEE people, travelling from Czech Republic, Germany and Georgia to Budapest to attend the “NGO Island” of one of the biggest festivals in Europe…

…The result? A week of games and discussions about environment and youth participation, meeting interesting people from all around Europe, sharing opinions on sustainable development, discovering how music and culture bring people together, sharing the belief that young people can have the power to raise their voice. Not only for singing along their favourite bands, but also for expressing what they believe in and acting for it.

This is a brief summary of YEE’s participation in the NGO Island at the Sziget festival, from 9 to 15 August 2017, in Budapest, Hungary. We used the opportunity of being there to spread the word about the STEP project, inform young people about what is youth participation and engage them in discussions about sustainable development (via the STEP contest), environmental action and climate change.

The YEE team at the festival was composed of members of YEE Office and Board, and a member of the STEP Advisory Board.

We learnt a lot about what young people believe could help our planet and about all the ways in which we can understand participation. We learnt how participation can be meaningful “offline”, meeting people face-to face and putting ideas together, but also how it can happen “online”, as e-participation. In this regard, we invite you to explore e-participation more by taking part in the STEP contest about the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals till 31 August 2017. More information here: http://step4youth.eu/win/

Last but not least, have a look below at a few photos from our week - and stay tuned to the STEP blog, where we will publish some follow-up materials!