The Youth Cultural Festival is a national arts competition and festival that provides the youth with the venue for artistic expression, cultural appreciation, participation in productive activities and networking with other young people. The Festival's component activities are immersion, exhibits, workshops, cultural competitions and performances.

It is open to young Filipinos aged 15 to 30 who are bonafide members of the Katipunan ng Kabataan (KK) or school and community cultural groups or organizations.

General Objective
The YCF aims to promote artistic pursuits as a means of youth expression, participation and linkaging, especially between and among the members of the Katipunan ng Kabataan and school- or community-based groups. It shall showcase the participants' talents in the performing arts while simultaneously integrating indigenous elements from the respective regions they represent.

Categories and Component Activities

• dance
• theater
• immersion and outreach activities
• workshops

YCF 1999 - a look back.
The launching in l999 of the Youth Cultural Festival (YCF), dubbed "Tagpuang Sining: Pagsalubong ng Kabataan sa Bagong Milenyo", at the University Theater in UP Diliman, provided some 240 young people from the 16 regions of the country an opportunity to showcase productions that adopted characteristics of traditional musical and dance forms derived from non-westernized artistic expressions.

Three such productions were Mindanao State University's "Linggisan Tutup", a Tausug contemporary dance depicting courtship and customary practices, the Tribu Panaad's "Dinagyang", a dance presentation of "merriment" to commemmorate Ati Christianization celebrated on the feast day of Seņor Sto. Niņo every January, and the Tarlac State University's "Pagsilang", a dance production depicting the traditional folkways and rituals of the Aetas of Tarlac.

President Joseph E. Estrada stressed the importance of the arts as a means of cultivating the capabilities of the young and drawing them away from drugs and other vicesv.

He also exhorted the youth to rise up to the challenge of Dr. Jose Rizal's words that the youth are the hope of the fatherland and to "link arms, establish camaraderie, (and) retrace our roots so that we can move forward and face the future with confidence."

NYC Commissioner Herbert M. Bautista likewise stressed the activity's vision of instilling among our youth a genuine appreciation of indigenous Filipino culture and the ability to reconcile it with the present generation fad with the goal of establishing and rediscovering our true identity and nationalism.

YOUTH CULTURAL IMMERSION & OUTREACH PROGRAM (YCIOP)
A cultural appreciation and outreach program that is geared to showcase the nurturing nature of partnership between the indigenous people's (IPs) and the youth by immersing members and officers of organized youth groups in selected indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) for approximately ten (10) days.

Objectives

1. To increase youth awareness and appreciation of indigenous peoples' concerns; and
2. To harness the energies of the youth towards community development projects, in the spirit of volunteerism, especially within ICCs.

Target Clientele
Officers and members of organized youth groups.

Component Activities

1. Invitation and selection of youth participants
2. Selection and ocular inspection of the host ICC
3. YCIOP proper: homestay, cultural exchanges/ performances, lectures and workshops, eco-tours, sports activities, courtesy calls with local chief executives, community development projects, drafting of Resolution/Manifesto
4. Data banking
5. Policy formulation and advocacy

PARTNER AGENCY
National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

TIME FRAME
one (1) or two (2) immersion sites every year.

CONTACT PERSON
REGINA REBURIANO
TEL/FAX:
781-1406/1152/1163/1671/
781-2386/1613
loc. 122, 123

EMAIL: [email protected]