WESTWIND festival is a partner in the project EXIT THE ROOM, funded by the EU programme ERASMUS+, which will run from 2022 to 2028.

Young Artists & Young Audience exploring new ways of creating theatre and art exchange

The programme includes residencies for YOUNG ARTISTS (aged between 18 and 25) and their performative try-outs at the participating festivals as well as expert talks by festival organisers and networking meetings between the participating partner institutions. New forms of dialogue, reflection and encounters between young people around theatre performances will be developed. The focus is on even closer networking between budding artists and experienced theatre makers in workshops, dialogues and discourses. The aim is to create a large network of Next Generation projects and festivals in European children's and youth theatre by 2028.

WESTWIND already took part in the festival makers' professional exchange in 2022, in 2023 WESTWIND itself hosted a network meeting in Bonn at the Marabu Theatre for the first time and the international festival makers will also be guests at the Maschinenhaus in Essen in 2024. In 2025, WESTWIND hosted both project formats for the first time: the professional exchange for EU festival organisers and, at the same time, YOUNG ARTISTS, which concluded its new project phase in Düsseldorf in June 2025.

Intergenerational questions addressed by the project:

What are the themes and artistic forms of the NEXT GENERATION and what methods and platforms do they need to develop their art?
How can children and young people, the direct target audience of the plays, be interactively involved in the festival events?
What ways can be found to connect theatre with its environment?
How do the artists interact with the respective cities?
How can cultural criticism and cultural policy engage with children's and youth theatre in a theoretical, professional way?

At the end of their project, the NEXT GENERATION participants pass on their findings and knowledge to a new project group and the project cycle can begin each year with a new generation of young artists between the ages of 18 and 25.

A new call for proposals for the next project phase in 2027 for Next Generation/ YOUTH Mobility will be issued in Summer 2026.

With EXIT THE ROOM - NEXT GENERATION, the following theatres and festivals are looking for exciting formats that make theatre festivals and performances an extraordinary event:

• Agora Theater, St. Vith, Belgium
• Bravo! Festival, Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland
• Bronks Festival, Brussels, Belgium
• Junges Theater Bremen, Bremen, Germany
• Kliker Festival, Varaždin, Croatia
• Maas Theater & Dans, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Mezzanin Theater, Graz, Austria
• SEGNI New Generation Festival, Mantua, Italy
• spleen*graz Festival, Graz, Austria
• Stadttheater Spandau, Berlin, Germany
• Starke Stücke, Festival Frankfurt and Rhine-Main region, Germany
• TaO!, Graz, Austria (accredited institution and head organization)
• VRUM performing arts collective, Wien, Austria
• WESTWIND Festival, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The aim is to continuously expand this network.

Further information and insights into the artistic project work can be found on the project's homepage: https://exit-the-room.eu/