National Youth Festival
National youth festival is celebrated every year in India on the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, organized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. The National youth festival is celebrated once in a year in one of the States in a joint venture. The main aim of National Youth Festival is to spread the teachings and principles of Swami Vivekananda the great monk of India and develop national integration, brotherhood and communal harmony amongst the youth of India.
First National Youth Festival was started in the year 1995 under the programme of National Integration Camp (NIC) as a major activity in association with one of the States and institutions like Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and the National Service Scheme (NSS) and is continued till today every year. Even states also encouraging their state youth by conducting district level, State level and block level youth festivals in the same manner as National Youth Festival.
National Youth Festival holds the logo that depicts six active and stylized youth, portraying the “unity in diversity” of India. It uses various colour shades to suggest the multicolored cultural facet of India and symbolizes the theme ‘Celebrating Diversity’. In this National Youth Festival about 5000 youth from countries like Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan and Nepal participate in this Youth Festival organized every year by the Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in India in each different state every year.
Many competitive events takes place in this National Youth Festival where talented youth perform to compete at national level at their level best to win medals and awards. The competitive events includes both competitive and non-competitive cultural events like in competitive events such as folk dances, Classical Dances, One Act Play Classical Vocal Solo, Folk Song, Classical Instrumental Solo and non competitive events are Hasya Kavi Samillani, Rock Show, Special Cultural Evening etc. other events performed by youth are intellectual discourses, Martial Arts, Young Artists Camps, Seminars, Adventure programmes, Yuva Kirtti, Food Festival, Youth Convention Suvichar, Young Artist Camp, Adventure Sports.
Even various instrumental competitions like Classical Instrumental Solo are also held to select the best talent of the country. These competitions are conducted by the a team of eighteen officers in all disciplines manages the competitions, help in creating logistical arrangements for conducting smooth competitions, collecting and collating the results.
Such competitive events held in the National Youth festival focuses on cultural aspects and develops the spirit of friendship but also peace and development providing nation-wide exposure to the youth as a good platform for the expression and fulfilment of their cultural talents and aspirations.