Over 300 Kenyans are among more than 100,000 young leaders from 191 countries who have applied to participate in the 2026 International Festival of Youth (IFY) in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
The global event, set for September 11–17, will take place as part of the national project “Youth and Children” bringing together 10,000 selected participants to engage in open dialogue, exchange experience, and foster international cooperation.
“More than 100,000 young people from 191 countries around the world have submitted applications to participate in the International Festival of Youth, which will take place in Ekaterinburg as part of the national project “Youth and Children”. Among them are those who are already implementing social projects, developing technologies, achieving success in science, and working in the public administration of their countries. Together, these young leaders will seek solutions to global challenges. It is important that this international dialogue will take place in our country, where, at the instruction of President Vladimir Putin, broad opportunities for the self-realization of young people are being created,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia.
Applications to participate in the IFY-2026 were open to young people aged 14 to 35 from Russia and other countries.
“Expanding opportunities for self–realization of young people, establishing friendly and professional ties, launching joint projects with foreign colleagues are the priorities of the IFY-2026. We have received 40,231 applications from all regions of Russia. At the same time, for the first time in the modern history of youth festivals, 20,000 more applications were received from foreigners than from Russians. The Festival received a response all over the world: more than 62,000applications were received from Europe, North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and even Australia,” said Grigory Gurov, Head of Rosmolodezh.
Moscow became the leader among the Russian regions in terms of the number of applications. The Sverdlovsk Region and the city of Ekaterinburg, which hosts the Festival, are in second place.
In September 2026, the capital of the Urals will turn into a real “World Youth City” a meeting place for cultures, ideas and views, where young people from all over the world will be able to build a common future of a multipolar world together.
St. Petersburg, Perm and Krasnodar Territories, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh regions, the Republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan were also among the leaders among the Russian regions in terms of the number of applications.
“We are pleasantly surprised by the activity of young Ekaterinburg residents, who submitted over 2,000 applications to the Festival. The most accurate surveys show that residents of the capital of the Urals not only share their achievements, but also demonstrate a sincere motivation to establish contacts with peers from abroad, as well as a desire to show the whole world their region, known for its industrial might, rich culture and amazing talented people,” said Dmitry Ivanov, Director General of the World Youth Festival Directorate.
Adding that: “Among foreign countries, Algeria, Pakistan and Brazil became the leaders in the number of applications the countries of three completely different macro-regions of the world, which clearly indicates the global interest in the Festival. Morocco, Uzbekistan, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam and Libya also entered the top ten among foreign countries. Russia will accept participants from all corners of the globe with openness and respect and create all conditions for a meaningful, honest and truly unifying intercultural dialogue.”
Children showed special interest. For them, at the International Festival of Youth, the “Movement of the First” will present a large-scale children’s program that will bring together thousands of youngsters from all over the world. One of its main tasks is to create conditions for the qualitative development of children’s diplomacy, the development and implementation of joint initiatives.
“The children’s program will allow participants to get introduced to the achievements of modern Russia, develop joint projects in various fields: from science, education, digitalization, creativity and creative industries, to media, sports and entrepreneurship. It is important that teenagers showed great interest: over 13,000 applications were submitted from participants aged 14-17, of which about 5,000 were from foreigners. The program participants will include 500 people from Russia and 500 from other countries. I am sure that during the Festival, children from different countries will find many like-minded people to jointly propose initiatives that they will be able to implement in their homeland in the future,” said Artur Orlov, Hero of Russia, participant in the presidential personnel program “Time of Heroes”, Chairman of the Board of the “Movement of Firsts”.
The experts have already started analyzing the submitted applications. They will have to select 10,000 of the best profiles of potential participants who will go to the festival in Ekaterinburg in September.
When evaluating candidates, priority will be given to young people who demonstrate expertise, have already proved themselves and implemented successful projects in one of the eight areas: science and education, sports, entrepreneurship, media, digitalization and IT, creative industries and creativity, public administration and civic engagement.
The evaluation will also take into account the participant’s motivation to develop international cooperation and share experience with other participants.
For candidates who did not have time to apply in the main stage, a backup registration on the International Platform of Opportunities is open until May 31. wyffest.com. Applicants from the reserve list will be able to participate in the IFY-2026 if any of those registered in the main list are unable to visit the Festival for any reason.
The International Festival of Youth will become part of the “family” of events of the World Youth Festival, which began at the “Sirius” Federal Territory in 2024.
World Youth Festival
The World Youth Festival took place on March 1–7, 2024 in “Sirius”, according to the Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the development of international youth cooperation. The WYF-2024 brought together 20,000 young leaders from 190 countries.
In accordance with the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on preserving and developing the legacy of the World Youth Festival, the festival events will be held annually on the territory of the Russian Federation.
In 2025, the World Youth Festival Assembly was held in Nizhny Novgorod and brought together 2,000 young people from 120 countries. In the year 2026, the International Festival of Youth will gather 10,000 participants. The next World Youth Festival for 20,000 participants will be held in 2030.
The World Youth Festival Directorate continues the work aimed at strengthening international youth cooperation and developing a community of young people who are passionate about the future of the world.
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