3,500 young people. A moment of silence. At 40 industrial heritage sites all over Europe, people start dancing to the same music and choreography. Sometimes there are five, sometimes a hundred. Some are kindergarten children, some are schoolchildren or dance students, some are senior citizens. Agneta is dancing in front of the entrance to a mine shaft in Poland, José is dancing in a former train shed in Portugal, Maria is dancing on the grounds of an ironworks in Ukraine, Gustav is dancing on the antenna tower of a radio station in Sweden, about 100 meters above the ground. They do not know each other personally - but their dance connects them across national borders with all the other thousands of dancers all over Europe on this Day of Open Monuments.

WORK it OUT is the name of the joint dance event organised by ERIH The European Route of Industrial Heritage that has been held annually since 2018 on the second Sunday in September. ERIH provides the music, choreography, colourful hats, social media communication and a basic marketing package. The sites organise the dancers and an individual programme for visitors. The dancers and their friends and families are invited to discover the sites.

The excitement is great when the videos of each dance group are shared after the dance. The audience loves it - and in the end, the three videos with the most “Likes” win a prize. But it all comes down to one thing - taking part is everything! The best dance scenes from all the sites are edited together in a joint video to create a cheerful picture of this pan-European event. at the places of industrial culture in Europe.

In 2018, the European Commission launched the European Year of the Cultural Heritage under the motto "Sharing heritage". The aim was to get young people in particular interested in Europe's cultural heritage.

But how? The sites on the European Route of Industrial Heritage are "museums", deal with "history" and tell us something about "industrialisation" - all terms that do not exactly arouse enthusiasm among children and teenagers.

So, we thought from the target group's point of view. What do they like? Music, dance, their mobile phones, staging themselves, taking photos and videos and sharing them with friends, having fun. And how can this take place simultaneously in as many decentralised locations in Europe as possible? How can small and large locations take part? And how can we create a sense of community that connects people across national borders?

The industrial heritage of the ERIH offers spectacular backdrops: gigantic factories, machine halls, winding towers, above or below ground. Exciting testimonies to the European spirit of invention, engineering and architecture.  

All of this has been incorporated into the WORK it OUT concept: young musicians are composing a song with industrial sounds for ERIH, dance enthusiasts are developing a joint choreography and industrial heritage sites throughout Europe are inviting young people to rehearse and perform the WORK it OUT dance at the same time on the "Open Monument Day". They choose their best places to do so. Like a gigantic flash mop, the dance event runs through Europe's industrial heritage sites. And a little fun fact on the side: it's not just young people who like the concept. In 2023, our youngest dancer was 3 years old, the oldest 89.

The event has been held annually since 2018 (even during the pandemic). Over 3,500 dancers at 40 locations in 10 countries took part in 2023. Depending on the location, there are small groups of a few people or several hundred, all wearing the ERIH "workers´ cap” (in a different colour each year) and then sharing their video via the ERIH social media channels. The videos collect “likes” for a week and the three best are awarded prizes. Dancers and their fans share their own photos and videos via their social media channels, allowing WORK it OUT to reach several million people in Europe.

And we often hear from the dancers and their families "We've never been here before, but it's a great place and we'll definitely be back". For us, this is proof that the concept works.

We are looking forward to 7th edition of WORK it OUT 2024 on 8 September 2024 again at many industrial heritage sites in Europe.

No future without an origin: The history of industrialisation in Europe is an essential part of Europe's past - nothing has shaped this continent like the more than 200 years since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Thousands of industrial monuments and museums bring this time to life and sometimes become the nucleus of innovative urban culture. ERIH, the “European Route of Industrial Heritage”, connects them to a tourism network which enables visitors to experience and touch our common European history. The mission of the network is to encourage the appreciation, understanding, protection and promotion of our shared European industrial history and to facilitate this by the exchange of experience and by joint marketing. In order to make this cultural heritage sustainable and fit for the future, it is very important to get the younger generation interested in it. New values and contemporary narratives that also address critical aspects of industrialisation such as climate change, forced and child labour or colonisation, without neglecting the achievements of industrialisation. WORK it OUT connects this European heritage in an initially playful way and attracts people to the sites, where we can then tell them about our shared European history.