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 the 19th Festival on February 7, 2016.
Russia has previously hosted the World Festival of Youth and Students twice — 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 was truly impressive and the bar for the future capitals of the Festival was set high.
Keeping the best festival traditions alive while combining them with key current trends, Russia is once again to welcome with all its hospitality representatives of all continents!
The Festival aims to consolidate international youth community, strengthen international ties, as well as promote international and intercultural cooperation. One of the main goals of the upcoming Festival is shaping a common vision of the future by the young leaders from different countries, trying to articulate responses to the most pressing challenges of the generation. The main agenda of the discussion program is to encompass the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the United Nations.
20 000 PARTICIPANTS
5 000 VOLUNTEERS
150 COUNTRIES
The Festival will unite more than 20 000 young leaders from 150 countries. The platform is to bring together young leaders aged 18-35 from various fields: youth NPOs representatives, young journalists, creative and sports youth, young workers, young IT-specialists, and engineers, leaders of political parties’ youth organizations, young faculty members, young leaders of student governments, young scientists, young entrepreneurs, as well as compatriots and foreigners learning Russian language and interested in Russian culture.
Russia will host more than 8 000 foreign participants!
Participants: leaders of youth NPOs, young journalists, creative youth (musicians, writers, artists, directors, etc.), sports youth (leaders of student sports clubs, professional sportsmen), young leaders of student governments, leaders of political parties’ youth organizations, young faculty members, young scientists (social studies and humanities, natural and technical sciences), foreigners learning Russian language, interested in Russian culture, etc.
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 party. At the same time, the organizers are currently working to arrangecharter flights to Moscow from different countries and regions of the world to make it possible to provide low fare tickets. Moreover, the participants of the Festival will be provided with a special 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 #VolunteersofPeace, consisting of 5000 volunteers, both from Russia and from other countries of the world, will assist at the Festival. If you are a foreign citizen and you want to join the unified volunteer team of the Festival, you have this opportunity: during the registration on the official website of the Festival – http://russia2017.com/ in the field «Motivation to participate in the Festival» please specify, among other things, «I want to become a volunteer of the Festival», and briefly describe your experience, if any. 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 program of the 19th Festival involves various platforms, including panel discussions and open lectures on topical issues of youth policy and international relations, sports competitions, as well as a number of cultural and creative events. Tentatively, key issues of the event will be: «Culture and globalization», «Global economy», «Knowledge economy», «Public institutions’ development», «Politics and international security». Furthermore, each day of the Festival program will be dedicated to a particular region of the world, and its final chord will be the day of Russia.
The working languages of the Festival are the 6 official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Key events will take place in the Olympic Park, which was built in the Imereti Lowlands in Sochi.Infrastructure has been established in such a way that, in fact, it’s 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.
For the first time in its history the main activities of the youth festival will take place 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. And also 2000 foreign participants from the whole world in the first three days of the Festival from 14 to 17 October will be able to visit one of the best cities of Russia, among which are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yekaterinburg.
If you are a 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».
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 visithttps://reg.russia2017.com/members. (Deadline for international participants till 10 of June!)
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.
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!
