About the 19Th World Festival of Youth and Students

About the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students

Towards WFYS 2017, keeping the traditions alive!

The 19th World Festival of Youth and Students / #WFYS2017 is to be held on October 14-22, 2017 in Sochi, Russia.

This decision was made by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and international student organizations at the international consultation meeting on conducting the 19th Festival on February 7, 2016.

Russia has previously hosted the World Festival of Youth and Students twice (during the Soviet period) - in 1957 and in 1985. It is especially important to us that the year of 2017 is the anniversary year for the first Festival that took place in 1947 and for our history as well. It was 60 years ago that our country opened its doors to the youth of the whole globe for the first time. The scale of the Moscow Festival impressed the world and the bar for the future capitals of the Festival was set high.

Keeping the best festival traditions alive while combining them with current trends, Russia is once again to welcome with all its hospitality representatives of all continents!

The Festival aims to unite the most progressive young people of the planet for joint development of image of the future on key directions until 2030.

20 000 PARTICIPANTS

5 000 VOLUNTEERS 150 COUNTRIES

Students and young professionals from different spheres from more than 150 countries will become participants of the Festival. Age of participants – from 18 to 35 years.The most active young people, leaders in their fields from the whole world will come to Sochi. Overall expected number of participants of the Festival - 20 000 - 10 000 Russian and 10 000 foreign young people, who will successfully pass the stages of selection. The image of the future developed by young people from all the inhabited continents of the planet will become the result of work at the Festival, because their decisions will determine the fate of countries, regions and the whole world.

All costs (accommodation, meals, participation in cultural and sports events) during the Festival shall be covered by the host party. The travel expenses to the Festival venue (city of Sochi) and back shall be covered by the participant / the sending organization. At the same time, the organizers are currently working to arrange charter flights to the Festival from different countries and regions of the world to make it possible to buy low fare tickets. Moreover, the participants of the Festival will be granted with the simplified visa regime (visa application for the participants of the Festival will be free) to enter the territory of the Russian Federation.

The Volunteer corps will assist in organizing the biggest youth event of the year. 5000 people from Russia and other countries aged over 18 years old, including “silver” volunteers (older persons and elders) will become #VolunteersofPeace. Training of the team will take place in 20 volunteer recruitment and training centers of Russia, and the 21st one will be a volunteer center in Sochi, which will implement the program «City volunteers».

The agenda of the 19thFestival involves discussion and educational formatson topical global issues developed considering the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Each day of the Festival will be dedicated to one of macro regions of the planet (America, Near East, Asia and Oceania, Europe, Russia as the host of the event). Among the themes of the discussion program will be: - Designing the future: architecture and design; - Global politics and international security. Challenges of the future; - Ecology and health; - The future of science and global education; - Economy and Entrepreneurship. Drivers of the future; - Industries 2030; - Civil Development Platform; - Culture of the World 2030 and many others.

Young cinematographers, artists, designers will present the results of their work in various formats. Participants from all over the world will be asked to pass the GTO standards, participate in ECO race, and create a team on a football field, court or hockey box.

The working languages of the Festival are the six official languages of the United Nations: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French.

Key events will take place in the Olympic Park, which was built in the Imereti Lowlands in Sochi. The main activities will take place in the Olympic Park of Sochi, and the cultural and entertainment programs will also take place in several dozen different spots of the city. For the first time in its history, the key events of the Youth Festival will be held not in the country’s capital. At the same time, the whole country will be engaged in this great feast. The International parade-carnival, that will take place on October 14 in Moscow, will start WFYS 2017. 2000 foreign participants in the first three days of the Festival will be able to visit Russian regions from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad and fromSevastopol to St. Petersburg. If you area foreign citizen and you want to take part in the regional program, please specify this in your application in the field «Motivation to participate in the Festival».

Infrastructure has been established in such a way that, in fact, it is a city within a city: participants will live in comfortable hotels, and discussion platforms, work centers and leisure places will be within walking distance. All objects have been specially built for the XXII Winter Olympic Games and the XI Paralympic Games. In 2014 Sochi impressed the whole world. The Festival pursues an ambitious objective – to fully correspond the level set during the sports competitions.

To learn more about the Festival and the preparation process visit our official website: http://russia2017.com/.

To apply for participation in the World Festival of Youth and Students visit https://reg.russia2017.com/members. To follow the news of the Festival subscribe to our social media accounts: – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wfys2017 - Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wfys2017/ - Twitter https://twitter.com/wfys2017

The official social network of the Festival VKontakte (ВКонтакте) accumulates all the media content, and during the Festival, it will be updated in two languages – English and Russian (https://vk.com/wfys2017). Stay tuned for updates and keep in touch with other participants via Telegram – a modern instant messenger (our English-language channel - https://t.me/WFYS2017eng).

Good luck and see you in Sochi!