World Festival of Youth and Students

The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students after 1947.

History

The festival has been held occasionally since 1947, mainly in communist states, as an event of global youth solidarity for democracy and against war and imperialism. The largest festival was the 6th, held in 1957 in Moscow, when 34,000 young people from 131 countries attended the event. This festival also marked the international debut of the song "Moscow Nights", which subsequently went on to become a widely recognized Russian song. There were no festivals between 1962 and 1968, as events proposed in Algeria and then Ghana were cancelled due to coups and political turmoil in both countries.^[1] Until the 19th festival in Sochi, Russia in 2017 (with 185 countries participating),^[2] the largest festival by number of countries with participants was the 13th, held in 1989 in Pyongyang when 177 countries attended the event.^[3]

The most recent festival took place in Sochi, Russia, from 13 to 22 October 2017.

Editions

Edition	Year	Country	Host City	Participants	No. of countries represented	Motto
1st	1947	Czechoslovakia	Prague	17,000	71	"Youth Unite, Forward for Lasting Peace!"
2nd	1949	Hungary	Budapest	20,000	82	"Youth Unite, Forward for Lasting Peace, Democracy, National Independence and a better future for the people"
3rd	1951	East Germany	East Berlin	26,000	104	"For Peace and Friendship – Against Nuclear Weapons"
4th	1953	Romania	Bucharest	30,000	111	"No! Our generation will not serve death and destruction!."
5th	1955	Poland	Warsaw	30,000	114	"For Peace and Friendship – Against the Aggressive Imperialist Pacts"
6th	1957	Soviet Union	Moscow	34,000	131	"For Peace and Friendship"
7th	1959	Austria	Vienna	18,000	112	"For Peace and Friendship and Peaceful Coexistence"
8th	1962	Finland	Helsinki	18,000	137	"For Peace and Friendship"
9th	1968	Bulgaria	Sofia	20,000	138	"For Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
10th	1973	East Germany	East Berlin	25,600	140	"For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
11th	1978	Cuba	Havana	18,500	145	"For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
12th	1985	Soviet Union	Moscow	26,000	157	"For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
13th	1989	North Korea	Pyongyang	22,000	177	"For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
14th	1997	Cuba	Havana	12,325	136	"For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
15th	2001	Algeria	Algiers	6,500	110	"Let’s Globalize the Struggle For Peace, Solidarity, Development, Against Imperialism"
16th	2005	Venezuela	Caracas	17,000	144	"For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle Against Imperialism and War"
17th	2010	South Africa	Pretoria	15,000	126	"Let's Defeat Imperialism, for a World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation!"
18th	2013	Ecuador	Quito	8,500	80^[4]	"Youth Unite Against Imperialism, for a World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation!"
19th	2017	Russia	Sochi	30,000	185^[5]	"For peace, solidarity and social justice, we struggle against imperialism. Honoring our past, we build the future!"

Gallery

1949, Budapest.
1951, East Berlin, children holding mandolins and accordion in front of a flag (with Stalin's face).
1953, Bulevardul Magheru in Bucharest
1973, East Berlin: delegates from Burundi