INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY 2023

09-04-2024

Celebrating Youth Across Generations

This year’s International Youth Day celebration took place at the Youth Center on 12 August was truly a memorable event. It was a wonderful collaboration between YouthLink and the Youth Center.

The event announced a theme and a dress code of ‘Youth Across Generations” to encourage the community to come dressed according to the fashion trends of decades past, culminating in a vibrant array of colours, decorations and wigs on the day itself and the time frame was from the 1950s till the present day. Which was all about showing how young people have changed over time.

The event started with an amazing lunch buffet and we had different activity areas set up to provide activities for attendees such as 

Time Boulevard: The Time Boulevard was like a journey through the years, with infographics showing what young people were into in different decades such as youth movements, art, fashion, movies, musicians and concerts as well as pictures from Auroville and Youth Center

Art Corner: The art corner was all about trying out different artsy activities like face painting, henna, tie dye, sign making, macrame, graffiti, clay and Japanese ball art.

Kids' corner: The kid’s corner was all for the little ones who like to play in broad games.

Game corner: In the games corner, one could challenge oneself with two games: one where you had to imagine the floor was lava and complete the obstacles, and another where you stacked crates as high as you could.

Food corner: Throughout the day, there were yummy snacks, ice creams, teas, and coffees available. And for dinner, we had delicious pizza!

At four in the afternoon, collective games took centre stage. Laughter echoed as participants engaged in limbo, tug-of-war, the tail game, a sack race, Kajimba pong, and even a dad joke competition. It was to revisit games from when we were younger and play them again with people of all ages. The rain, although causing a few slips, only made the afternoon more memorable for everyone there.

The evening program was kicked off with a classic Miracle Productions play,  appropriately titled Short Notice considering that they were given less than a week to script it and get it up on stage. Little Beauty, a young girl cursed by her evil aunt Malfunction, pricks her finger on a mullu and falls into a deep sleep, only to be woken up by the kiss of a bicycle. However confusing this description may sound, the performance brought laughter and amusement to all present.

A delicious dinner of Youth Centre pizza preceded the nighttime musical festivities. Live band performances were accompanied by fire juggling. And for the grand finale, the travelling band The Romantikos gave a captivating performance of Spanish gypsy melodies, which had everyone dancing - a perfect ending to a beautiful day.

The event was a big success. Both the community and the guests loved it, and the Youth Center had such a warm and friendly vibe throughout the day :)

written by Gwjwn