New Delhi: Providing a forum to the young talent of the country, the 14th National Youth Festival will be held at Amritsar (Punjab) January 12-16, 2009, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports announced here today.

About 4000 delegates from all States and UTs are likely to participate in the Youth Festival.

The National Youth Festival is organized every year from January 12-16, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda i.e. January 12.

The theme and arrangements of the ensuing festival will be finalized on December 10, in the meeting of the National Steering Committee, setup under the Chairmanship of Dr. M.S. Gill, Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports.

An amount of Rs.150 lakhs has already been sanctioned by the Government of India to the State Government for organizing the Youth Festival.

The Department of Youth Affairs has requested each State/UT Government to send a contingent of 100 participants in the festival for competing in designated events and also for participating in other activities.

Youth delegates from the SAARC and neighboring countries have also been invited to participate in the festival.

The festival will be inaugurated on January 12, 2009 in which the National Youth Awards and Awards to the Outstanding Youth Clubs will be given.

There will be competitive events in 16 individual items and two group items. In addition to these, a young Artists Camp, Yuva Kriti and an Adventure Festival will be organized by the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan that functions under the aegis of the Department of Youth Affairs.

A lecture series - 'Suvichar' and a National Youth Convention will be organized by the National Service Scheme (NSS) during the festival.

The First National Youth Festival was successfully held at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in the year 1995.

The venues where these festivals were subsequently successfully held are Kolkata (West Bengal) in 1996, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) in 1997, Chennai(Tamil Nadu) in 1998, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) in 1999, Gandhinagar (Gujarat) in 2000, Hisar (Haryana) in 2002, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) in 2003, Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) in 2004, Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) in 2005, Patna (Bihar) in 2006, Pune (Maharashtra) in 2007 and Chennai (Tamil Nadu) in 2008.