On 14-22 October, World Festival of Youth and Students will bring young people from all around the world to Sochi. The festival held since 1947 already took place in Moscow in 1957 and 1985.
History of World Festival of Youth and Students: from Soviet Era to Nowadays
Almost 30 years have passed since 1957, when Russia became the hostess of the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985.
26 thousand people from 157 countries took part in the 12^th festival, celebrities from abroad and the USSR among them. They presented their festival events, and the Soviet youth gladly joined in. Juan Antonio Samaranch, a big Spanish figure of the international Olympic movement, established the Peace Race, Danish caricaturist Herluf Bidstrup conducted master classes, and American singer Dean Reed performed his songs on stage of the Gorky Park.
Along with foreign stars, Russian famous figures of culture and sports participated in the festival program: chess player Anatoly Karpov played simultaneous chess games on a thousand boards, whereas Sofia Rotaru performed a new hit, The Bird of Happiness, at the festival opening ceremony and it became its informal hymn.
The festival program was elaborately designed, diverse and extensive: it engaged 15 thematic centers and included 66 discussions, 68 round tables, 4 conferences, 104 community events, 47 rallies, and many other events.
After the 1985 festival in Moscow, during the period of Perestroika, the festival movement faced certain difficulties.
Thanks to the efforts of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, however, after a long break, the traditions of the festival movement were restored. In the period from 2001 to 2013, the 15^th Festival was held in Algiers (2001), the 16^th Festival in Caracas (2005), the 17^th Festival in Pretoria, South Africa (2010), and the 18^th Festival in Ecuador (2013).
Participants of those festivals discussed new important topics: human rights, the danger of globalization, xenophobia, terrorism, but the theme of peace and friendship remained the key topic after many years.
In October 2017 Russia will receive guests at the 19^th World Festival of Youth and Students.
The festival will be held in Sochi from the 14^th to 22^nd October and promises to be no less ambitious in terms of the number of participants - more than 20 thousand people from 150 countries. They are leaders of youth nonprofit institutions, aspiring journalists, writers, artists, musicians, teachers, sportsmen and leaders of sports clubs and associations, scientists, IT specialists, leaders of youth organizations, political parties, and others.
The major goals of the festival participants this time are: consolidation of the youth world community around the idea of ​​peace, friendship and justice, strengthening of international relations, development of interethnic and intercultural interaction, and heightening the interest in Russia. To achieve these goals, it is proposed to create a network of friendly foreign youth non-profit organizations around the world, to accept the young people’s call to the world community and to recreate the international union of students.
Organizers promise an interesting, ambitious program. Within the framework of the festival there will be several venues in different fields, from culture to sport, and a large discussion program. Exhibitions, quests, fairs, creative workshops, meetings with famous people, demonstrations of scientific and technical creativity of young people, concerts of classical, jazz and modern music, film screenings and much more will make the festival an exciting and significant large-scale event.