"It is an unprecedented number of participants. During the Winter Olympics in Sochi there were 5,000 participants," the official noted.
The XIX World Festival of Youth and students is scheduled for October 14-22, and expects to attract young specialists aged between 18 and 35 from different backgrounds worldwide.
Earlier in June, Grigory Petushkov, the chairman of the Russian national preparatory committee, said that around 150,000 foreign nationals from 190 countries and over 60,000 Russians submitted bids for participation in the festival.
Sochi was chosen to host the 2017 festival by the general assembly of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) in 2015. 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.
