ESC volunteers in meaningful youth participation
Volunteering with the European Youth Card network takes many shapes, sometimes it's a desk and a laptop, sometimes it's a music festival on the Black Sea coast.
A team of ESC volunteers and interns from the National Youth Card Association (NYCA) Bulgaria, our member organisation, headed to Burgas to represent the EU Youth Dialogue at Spice Music Festival, proving once again that youth participation works best when it gets out into the world.
Here's what they got up to, in their own words.
OUTDOOR, BY THE SEA AND WITH A CAUSE
ESC volunteers in meaningful youth participation
Volunteering in a youth organisation is most effective when it takes place outdoors. You cannot communicate with young people and contribute to a more informed society from the office, especially when it is summer. You need to be outside, and if you are by the sea, even better. A year ago, the idea of going on a work trip to Burgas with a group of young people and a meaningful common purpose would have sounded crazy to me, almost like a dream. But not since I became part of the European Youth Card (EYC).
From 7 to 9 August 2026, our team of ESC volunteers, interns, mentor and supervisor visited the City of Birds and Lakes as part of our ongoing mission to represent the EU Youth Dialogue. This Dialogue is a great support for young people in Europe, as it is the missing link between us and the European institutions. The Dialogue has 11 goals, including connecting the EU with young people, gender equality, accessible education, awareness and constructive dialogue, space and participation for everyone, and more. An interesting fact is that these goals were developed when Bulgaria held the Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018.
Our work as volunteers involves communicating with different people in different places, and whenever a large-scale event that attracts young people takes place, we are there. And that is how we ended up at probably the most anticipated annual music event on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast - Spice Music Festival.
It is rare for a volunteering experience to fulfil your dreams, but that is exactly what happened to me on this trip! I had wanted to attend this festival for a long time because I really love 90s music, and thanks to the EYC, I finally got the chance!
At the festival, our task was to encourage visitors to scan the QR codes placed on our badges. This task is actually much more interesting than it sounds, because it gives you the chance to meet all kinds of people, immerse yourself more deeply in the atmosphere and do a little bit of research of your own. Since our volunteering work in Sofia is very similar, we were able to compare the attitudes of people from Burgas with those of people from the capital and see how we could improve our approach and communication style in order to encourage more people to engage in such a sociological process. If we had previously wondered what being a survey interviewer was like, things became much clearer to us.
Thank you to Fest Team, the organisers of Spice Music Festival, for helping us develop new skills, improve the ones we acquired through EYC, and dance to the songs we grew up with.
In addition to the festival, on our way back the team had the opportunity to visit the archaeological reserve of Kabile near Yambol. Seeing the Thracian artefacts and archaeological finds felt like another jump back in time. At first, I did not know why we were visiting the museum, but as I walked around, I realised that it could also be a very suitable place for volunteering - whether that meant taking care of the grounds or helping the guides. Our visit to Kabile reminded us that if we want to be socially active representatives of young people, we need to find new ways of coming together around positive common causes.
Simeon
ESC volunteer