Children's Program Opens for the First Time at the World Youth Festival

On March 1, the Children's Program "Let's Start the Future Together" opened at the Sirius University site of the World Youth Festival. The program was organized by Movement of the First and the Sirius Educational Center. 

"For the first time we have a separate children's track. Children along with adults take part in the Festival, we make a special program for them. Like the adult participants, the children went through a selection process, only it was a bit more complicated. In accordance with the high requirements of the Sirius Educational Center, they were tested, and we conducted individual interviews with all applicants. As a result, a thousand children were selected - 500 foreign and 500 Russian children," said Ksenia Razuvaeva, Head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, at the opening press conference of the Festival.

The Children's Program of the Festival will have a very specific result - this was told before the opening ceremony by Grigory Gurov, Chair of the Board of the Movement of the First".

"The children's program is divided into 18 laboratories, the outcome of which will be specific products made by the children. These are informational products, educational and scientific projects. But the main thing is that, as a result, we would like to form a system of international children’s friendship, which should be formalized into some kind of organization or into a system of activities and events that would promote common cultural values around the world,” noted Grigory Gurov.

According to Anton Gusev, First Deputy Head of the Talent and Success Educational Foundation, the youngest participants of the Festival will work in close international cooperation - each team includes children from Russia and other countries. And the tasks that they will solve were formulated by representatives of the Sirius Educational Center, the Movement of the First and the industrial partners of the program. 

“Literally two days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the concept of scientific and technological development, which, in particular, formulated the great challenges facing the country and the world as a whole. And it is impossible to find answers to these challenges within a single country. They need to be sought within the framework of international collaborations and cooperation. And this is the first aspect that we focus on when working with schoolchildren. We hope that this work will be the first step towards those international relations. And for the second. Answers to these challenges will have to be sought by those children who are now schoolchildren and who also came to our program,” emphasized Anton Gusev.

In addition, according to him, the program will continue. Senior schoolchildren will remain at the Sirius Educational Center for another two weeks after the end of the Festival and will continue to work on the tasks that they began to work on as part of the Festival. At the end of both, the first and second parts of the programs, large exhibitions of projects will be held. 

On the evening of the opening of the Children's Program, the guests of the ceremony may expect a large-scale show “Voices of the Big World” with the participation of professional actors, a ballet troupe, famous musicians, as well as the largest children's combined choir in Russia - the Choir of Firsts. 

According to the plot, the main character of the ceremony populates the planet with the voices of children of different nationalities. During the show, he talks about the workshops and laboratories of the children's program of the Festival. The ceremony ends with the song “Beautiful Far Away” in a modern arrangement in Russian and English, performed by the Choir of the First and artists together with the audience. 

The Opening Ceremony for the children's program was hosted by Oleg Sidorov and Anastasia Belyavskaya - the musical family duo NANCY & SIDOROV - bloggers, finalists of famous television projects in the country, authors of the WYF 2024 theme song. The participants of the program were greeted by the popular blogger and musician Egor Ship, who was popular among teenagers. 

A special children's program “Let's Start the Future Together” is being held as part of the World Youth Festival from March 1 to 7. It will bring together schoolchildren aged 14 to 17 years from different countries of the world. The program is aimed at supporting talented youth, as well as educating professional and responsible leaders of Russia and the entire world. During the week, participants will work in 18 laboratories and workshops, which bear the names of outstanding figures of culture, science, and art of Russia. During the Children's Program, children will also join the activities of the World Youth Festival.

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The World Youth Festival is held in the Sirius Federal Territory from March 1 to 7, 2024, in accordance with the Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to develop international youth cooperation.

The organizer of the World Youth Festival is the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), the operator of the WYF 2024 is the World Youth Festival Directorate.