World Festival of Youth 2017 Program to Be Approved at May Sri Lanka Meeting

The third international preparatory meeting of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students will take place in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo in May, where the festival’s program will be discussed and approved, the festival organizing committee's press service told Sputnik Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The XIX World Festival of Youth and students will take place in the Russian city of Sochi on October 14-21, it will attract some 20,000 young specialists from different spheres at the age of 18 to 35 from over 150 countries.

“The third preparatory meeting of The XIX World Festival of Youth and Students will take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on May 25-27. At the meeting, an extended program of discussion, the scientific and educational program of the festival will be approved, while the 2017 festival international organizing committee will be set up,” the press service of the festival said.

The fourth and final festival’s preparatory meeting will take place in Sochi in October, in the lead-up to the festival’s opening, the press service added.

A series of festive events in the light of the upcoming festival will kick off in Moscow on April 14 until April 20 and will be followed by a string of events across Russia.

Sochi was chosen as the place for the 2017 festival by the general assembly of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) in 2015 after Russia filed the application to host the event.

The international festival has been taking place since 1947 and is organized by WFDY and the International Union of Students. The last festival was held in Quito, Equador, in late 2013. Moscow has already hosted the event twice, in 1957 and in 1985.