The SX3 opens 'Fantàstix': a new immersive experience for children and families

Barcelona3Cat's SX3, with funding from Grup Transversal, this week opened the doors of Fantàstix, a new cultural, family, and immersive experience focused on the power of stories, imagination, and the active participation of children. Located in the Sagrada Família neighborhood, the space, which was a former 2,000-square-meter parking lot, has been transformed into a "factory of imagination," where the narrative focuses on the premise of recovering the power of storytelling, which has disappeared from the world. The project's intention is to become a new meeting point for families, the educational world, and Catalan children's and youth culture.

As communicated at a press conference by the president of 3Cat, Rosa Romà, Fantàstix is born with a clear cultural vocation: to vindicate the value of stories, oral tradition, and shared imagination as tools for growth, creativity, and intergenerational family connection. The experience is inspired by fables, classic tales, and universal narratives, with a perspective rooted in Catalan culture and tradition, featuring the imagery of SX3. The executive advocated for a commitment to presence, the value of creation, and taking a pause, in an environment digitally marked by immediacy and overstimulation: "It will be an initiative that will bring us even closer to families, within the framework of a strategic project of great social impact, the result of an alliance between 3Cat and Grup Transversal".

L'ARA had the opportunity to experience it fully and "recover imagination". A central narrative is presented that places the audience inside the SX3 imagination factory, when a kind of worldwide virus causes an unprecedented creative blackout, leading to a loss of imagination for creating stories, music, and tales. These are the Avorribots, the antagonists of the story, digital insects who, with the help of the Imaginets, the brigade of characters that keep the factory alive, must be defeated to thus recover fantasy. The universe is built from the body of fables and stories and is recreated as a great mad factory, a space where characters, settings, and narratives coexist. Faced with the chaos caused by the Avorribots, the resolution of the conflict is collaborative, in an experience lasting over an hour.

The route takes place in different scenarios from the world of fairy tales that they will discover as the challenge progresses, ending with a 4D experience. Visitors will pass through fairy tale settings such as a forest, a castle, a city square, or the cauldron of imagination. Participants must help the characters decide what to do in their stories: they can fill the ox's belly, climb an interactive beanstalk, find the magical path through the forest to advance in the adventure, or have the opportunity to ask a magic mirror questions, among other things. The public travels through the world of fairy tales, always with the aim of collaborating with the characters of SX3 to resolve the creative crisis.

Fantàstix will also have a theatre with a capacity of 200 people, where a parallel cultural offering is expected, which is scheduled to begin around the end of October this year with family shows, proposals linked to the world of stories, and frequent participation of characters from SX3. On the upper floor, the themed cafeteria will be located, which will be available to book for birthday parties, as well as a shop for objects and accessories.

However, not everyone is happy with the launch of this facility. Signs have appeared in the neighbourhood saying: "No to Fantàstix. 200,000 more visitors a year in the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood is for living".