WONDER Creativity Festival 2025 open call

WONDER pays tribute to the creativity and innovative ideas of talent.

The festival challenges the limits of our imagination, and looks confidently ahead to the future. WONDER is unique in Belgium as a vibrant platform and connector for design, innovation, technology and art. Young talent and established values from the broad creative field, industry and education put forward their vision of a better future.

WONDER encourages reflection and open-mindedness, and enthuses visitors to shape the future together in a daring and colourful way.

The beating heart of WONDER is on the BUDA island in Kortrijk UNESCO City of Design, with many exhibitions and installations by and with creatives from all over Belgium and internationally. The city centre forms the backdrop for the rest of the festival. In the many unique locations, public and private partners annually present exhibitions, lectures, workshops or events that celebrate imagination and creativity through a range of disciplines in the broadest sense.

In 2024, the festival presented 55 creative exhibitions and installations across 30 venues in central Kortrijk. At the main venue, the Budafabriek registered over 16,000 visitors. For edition 2025, we expect over 20,000 visitors.

WONDER welcomes a very diverse group of visitors of all ages, individuals, professionals mainly active within design and innovation as well as a lot of students in secondary and higher education. Detailed figures can be viewed on the website.

Aftermovie 2024:

Our call is open to both creatives (designers, artists, collectives, citizens), organisations (schools, galleries, shops, professional design studios, organisations) and companies. Anyone can submit a proposal, if the content, presentation and quality are in line with the festival. Selected participants will be included in the official programme. Where possible, we also link and match participants with each other: in terms of content or location. We aim for a community in which everyone reinforces each other.

Creative

WONDER invites creatives from all creative fields to participate.

Are you a designer/artist/collective who wants to present work or a project? A creative citizen who wants to engage children around art experiences? A digital artist looking for a venue or partner to show or elaborate an installation?

Organisation

WONDER invites organisations, schools, galleries, trade shops and professional design studios to participate for creative and innovative presentations.

Are you a gallery that wants to set up an exhibition for WONDER? A secondary school that wants to present a circular design project? An artistic organisation that wants to invite an international artist? A commercial shop that opens its doors to musical interventions? A café giving free rein to a creative chef?

Company

WONDER invites companies from all sectors that want to present themselves in a creative and innovative way to participate.

Would you like to present your products/services in a creative way to a wide audience of schools/architects/designers ... Would you like to present how you see the future in terms of sustainability? Would you like to set up an event in an inspiring setting? Or would you like to link your company to a positive, young and future-oriented story? Would you like to support an initiative by young designers or artists?

WONDER is organised by Designregio Kortrijk and made possible by our enthusiastic partners: main partners city of Kortrijk, National Lottery, CAAAP, Omer Vander Ghinste, and partners Fedustria, Textirama, Cohousing Projects and Zorggroep H.Hart.