WYF 2024: 100-Day Countdown to World's Main Youth Event Launched at Youth House Opening

The 100-day countdown to the World Youth Festival was launched on November 21. The event was held at the Youth House, which opened the same day. The Youth House is located in one of the pavilions of the Russia International Exhibition and Forum dedicated to the achievements and opportunities of young people.

The guests were introduced to the five main values to which each day of the Festival will be devoted: responsibility for the fate of the world, multinational unity, world of equal opportunities, preservation of traditional family values, and demonstration of the best Russian youth and interethnic achievements.

Russia is becoming the center of international youth policy and an important platform for building international relations in the field of global youth projects. The largest of them will be the World Youth Festival. This world-class event will bring together young people from all over the world and allow the younger generation to build a strong foundation for productive and close international cooperation for many years to come.

The festive event took the form of an interactive show. More than 300 youth representatives and more than 50 honorary guests from various fields became passengers of the Youth House — World Youth City flight. The boarding announcement was also in foreign languages, because the Festival will bring together participants from all over the world. More than 250,000 people from 183 countries have already applied to participate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the whole country and the guests of the Youth House.

"We want young people from all over the world to get to know Russia as it is, with all its natural, cultural and national diversity, and with its greatest asset: talented and determined people. They are capable of solving the most difficult tasks and conquering the highest peaks for the good of their homeland. We want our guests to see that Russia is indeed a land of opportunity. There is a huge space for young people to realize their potential and fulfill their dreams. Young people are the ones who have to decide on the future. They respect personal freedom and the right to one's own opinion. At the same time, it is much easier for them to understand each other, because they are interested in what unites people, not what divides them. Russia adheres to the same principles of recognizing the identity and national interests of different states."

Tatyana Golikova, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for Social Policy, spoke at the opening of the Youth House and the event dedicated to 100 days before the WYF 2024

"I think we have something to show, something to present, even from the short period that has passed between 2017 and 2024. It is very important that during this period an amazing youth movement has formed in Russia, a movement of caring people, a movement of people who help each other. All our youth projects and our flagship #MYVMESTE campaign confirm this. Thanks to this campaign, more and more people in our country and abroad are uniting around Russia," Tatyana Golikova said.

During the WYF 2024, the Olympic Park will turn into a real World Youth City, which will become one of the symbols of the Festival and will unite all participants around it. Its concept was presented by Sergey Pershin, WYF 2024 Program Director.

The journey to the Youth City will begin with the Sirius Science and Art Park stylized as the WYF 2024 International Airport and will continue through the main attractions of the youth capital of 2024. The Medal Plaza will be the City Center, the Iceberg Skating Palace will be the Palace of Culture, the Sirius Planetarium will be the cinema hall, the Youth City sports arena will be located at the Academy of Martial Arts, and the Bolshoy Ice Dome will host a large-scale Art&Youth market of young art and folk arts and crafts.

One of the guests of the event was Klavdiia Tikhomirova. She paricipated in the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957. She is also invited to the WYF 2024 opening ceremony. The official WYF 2024 song closed the show. The NANSI & SIDOROV duo, the authors of the song and residents of the Tavrida Art Cluster, performed it together with young people.

100 days before the Festival were celebrated all over the country. An I Dream! I Love! I Thank! flash mob was launched and supported by Russian cities. Young people all over the country made gestures to represent the manifesto of youth values.

Events supporting the WYF 2024 countdown were also organized in Chelyabinsk, Salekhard, Ekaterinburg, Yaroslavl, Vladivostok, St. Petersburg, Lugansk, Sevastopol, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, and Belgorod, which were included in the regional program of the Festival.

The illumination of famous objects was changed to the WYF 2024 corporate colors (yellow, green and pink) for several hours in cities all over Russia. Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Sochi, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, Saransk, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Ekaterinburg, Tula, Yaroslavl, Salekhard, Lipetsk, and Donetsk participated in the celebration. In Moscow, the Ostankino Tower, the Evolution Tower, the Book Houses on New Arbat Avenue, the Moscow House of Books on New Arbat Avenue, and some of the VDNH objects were illuminated in the WYF 2024 colors. There was a light show on the facade of Pavilion 1 of The First in Russia – Land of Opportunity, telling about the World Youth Festival.

Overview:

The World Youth Festival will take place in 2024 according to the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the development of international youth cooperation. At the first meeting of the Organizing Committee chaired by Sergey Kiriyenko, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration, it was decided to hold the Festival in the Sirius Federal Territory early next year.

20,000 young leaders in education, science, international cooperation, culture, volunteering, charity, sports, business, media, etc., including 10,000 foreign participants, will take part in the WYF 2024. For the first time in the history of the festival movement young people aged 14-17, 500 from Russia and 500 from abroad, will have the opportunity to participate in the event. Registration of participants is open at fest2024.com until December 1, 2023.

5,000 volunteers from all regions of Russia, including 228 residents of the LPR, DPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions will be involved in the organization and delivery of the Festival.

The World Youth Festival is organized by the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) and operated by the World Youth Festival Directorate.

Prepared by the WYF Press Office