The International Festival of Youth (IFY-2026) will be held in Ekaterinburg from September 11 to 17, 2026. The organization and holding of the event will be joined by volunteers who have passed a competitive selection on the Dobro.rf platform until March 31: https://dobro.ru/event/11434992
Russians over the age of 16 will be able to join the IFY-2026 volunteer corps. Candidates must have experience in volunteering and social activities, knowledge of foreign languages, a high level of motivation, sociability, as well as the ability to work in a team.
"We started accepting applications to join the volunteer corps of the Festival on Volunteer Day at the international forum of civil engagement #WEARETOGETHER. Since then, more than 5.5 thousand applications have been received from all over the country. Activists of public organizations and movements of different ages want to volunteer at the largest youth event, the oldest volunteer is 80 years old. This confirms that continuity has always been the basis of education, and Russians, regardless of age, are ready to take responsibility and make a personal contribution to the creation of a common history," said Grigory Gurov, head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh).
The volunteers will help in 17 functional areas. They will create a comfortable and festive atmosphere for guests, deal with accreditation and logistics issues, assist medical staff, accompany experts, foreign and Russian delegations, provide support to participants with limited mobility, provide interpretation and translation, participate in the organization of excursion programs, create content for social networks and interact with the media. After the end of the main program, the volunteers will accompany foreign delegations within the framework of the IFY-2026 regional program.
"The number of applications to the volunteer corps of the Festival is growing rapidly, and what is especially valuable is that whole families are joining us! The ranks of candidates are filled by both beginners who are just discovering the world of volunteering, and real professionals with more than 14,000 volunteer hours of experience at events of various levels. According to the results of the competitive selection, 2000 of the most active, trained and motivated people will become volunteers of the Festival. They will be involved in organizing all key processes and, most importantly, will represent the International Festival of Youth 2026 – they will be real ambassadors of hospitality, openness and intercultural dialogue," said Dmitry Ivanov, Director General of the World Youth Festival Directorate.
In addition, applications are being accepted for the All-Russian competition to identify Centers for attracting and training volunteers for the International Festival of Youth 2026.
The competition is organized by the World Youth Festival Directorate in cooperation with the Dobro.rf Association.It is aimed at forming a network of regional centers that will take on the key tasks of selecting and training volunteers.
Resource centers and volunteer organizations, universities and colleges implementing volunteering support programs, government agencies in the field of youth policy, as well as non-profit organizations are invited to participate in the competition. The winners will receive the official status of the IFY–2026 Volunteer Recruitment and Training Center and will become the mainstays of the Festival's volunteer program in their regions.
The centers for attracting and training IFY–2026 volunteers will conduct an information campaign in the region, create conditions for involving residents in the volunteer corps of the Festival, participate in the development and implementation of training programs, form teams of volunteers in the required number and accompany volunteers at all stages of training. Applications are open until February 8 on the Dobro.rf platform at: https://contests.dobro.ru/fest2026
Overview:
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, which took place on the Sirius Federal Territory in 2024 and united 20,000 young people from 190 countries of the world, festival events on the territory of the Russian Federation will be held annually. The next World Youth Festival for 20,000 participants will be held in 2030. In 2026, there will be a smaller event, an International Festival of Youth with 10,000 participants. In between, the World Youth Festival’s themed Assemblies will be held annually for 2,000 participants.
The first World Youth Festival Assembly was held in Nizhny Novgorod from September 17 to 21, 2025 and brought together 2,000 young people from 120 countries.
The World Youth Festival Directorate continues the work aimed at strengthening international youth cooperation.