On the 21 and 22 May 2005 a festival entitled "Pfalz Werla – Leben vor 1000 Jahren" (Werla Palace: Life before the 1000s) was held on the palace grounds. 300 actors, 130 tents, a dozen horses and five guns entertained around 17,000 visitors with three time periods: "Europe around 1000 AD," "Welf and Staufen period in the Middle Ages" as well as "the Late Middle Ages" looking at the defensive techniques and crafts of an urban community. The festival was meant to support Braunschweig's (unsuccessful) application to be a European Capital of Culture for 2010. For the application Wolfenbüttel district also commissioned a study published in 2003 which proposed a lavish reconstruction of the palace. The project was cancelled in 2005 when Braunschweig's application was rejected in favour of Essen with Ruhr.2010, Pécs and Istanbul.