Youth Festival ‘09

By Tony Nguyen

Rutgers University, USA

Volunteer, Documentation Center of Cambodia



The 8th Annual Youth Festival was held this past weekend from July 18-19, in the city of Kampong Cham . The Youth Festival was made possible by the organization and sponsorship of local NGO Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC), International Republican Institute (IRI), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This is the second time that the Kampong Cham has hosted this particular grand event but is far from foreign for holding such spectacular occasions. Last year, MTV’s EXIT, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, MTV Europe, and the Royal Government of Cambodia's National Task Force on Human Trafficking held a series of concerts and events in Kampong Cham to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking across the country. The attendance level of that event reached somewhere close to 30,000 people. The Youth Festival’s attendance was not as immense as MTV Exit last year, but the excitement and enthusiasm provided by the participants, makes it a noble comparison.



The key focus of the festival is to reach out and emphasize to the youth, which consist of an enormous 70 percent of Cambodia ’s population, about importance of education in government and how it will contribute to the development of the country. Lux Mean, IRI’s Program Officer feels that the youth is very limited when it comes to local and government’s participation and practices. He hopes that this event will “give the youth more practice in a social democracy and experience in organization” Moreover, he wants the “youth to obtain the knowledge of the government system”



The education of democracy and government is evidently limited in the Cambodian school system. When Tiem Soroeun, a 12th grade high school student from Kampong Cham, was asked to define and describe democracy, she responded, “It is the freedom to speak”. She could not give any further information because that was everything she could retain from school teaching. Yes, democracy comprise of freedom of speech. But what about all the other right and sovereignty democracy offer? The urgency for youth education with involvement is at its highest point now more than ever.



In an effort to achieve this goal, the festival was filled with many fun and educational activities. The fun is necessary to keep the youth interested and engaged in the activities while teaching them indirectly. Games, team workshops, and seminars were some of the activities held throughout the whole day. Visitors can participate in a fun blindfolding pot breaking game or a political quiz game. Events that drew in hundred of people were the singing and acting competition. Amateur singers from the area were given opportunities to demonstrate their singing capacities. There was a boy as young as five years old who singing fearlessly when he stepped on stage for the mass crowd.



Another great activity to be apart of was the team debate seminar. While in front of a visiting crowd, two teams of students are given an unknown topic to debate against each other, one pro and the other con. They argue for a period of time until they are stopped by the conductor of the event. After that takes place, the crowd decides and votes for whom they believe the winner is. This is one of the better exercises because it involves critical thinking, public speaking, crowd participation and voting.



There are wide varieties of seminars which you can participate in, so the choice is on based on your own interest. A helpful seminar that students should take advantage of was the newly formed organization called STUDENTs. The group’s goal is to train students in a step by step process to find jobs and scholarships after high school. After finishing school, many students are clueless on what next in line for them. It is in STUDENTs best intentions to lead students down the right direction.



STUDENTs was one of many private companies that was apart of the exhibition. Numerous universities, private association, and NGO organization took part in the exhibition as well.



The Youth Festival invites organizations from all around the country to showcase their fields and specialties. Mas Pon Thyroth, YCC’s Program Coordination, believes that “YCC and the supporting organization can benefit from each other.” Each one of their presentation offers students something new and different, giving them options when it comes to learning what truly like. Furthermore, the most important goal of their collaboration is for “the youth to benefit from it all”. So she urges to the youth take time to explore and be exposed to these diverse exhibitions.



The weather during the two days was unpredictable. Most of the day was tremendously hot with the constant sun beaming down on the field. Still, it was not a surprise to feel a bit of rain here and there because it is Monsoon season. On Saturday, the festival was hit by a powerful tropical storm that flipped it upside down. Booths, roofs, signs and towers all fell over because of devastation of the storm. People were running left and right in panic for cover. The whole experience was indescribable; you just have to be there to know. After the storm has passed, the people carried on with the spirit of the festival and its entire livelihood.



Walking around, you cannot help but to feel as though you were in a shopping center. In every other booth there was some sort of product or service to be sold. Companies such as Cellular, FILA Cosmetic, UFC, and ANZ Bank were to a great extent apart of the event as seminar booths. They had many great promotions to advertise along with free materials to give out. Their effort turned out to be a huge successful for the reason that everywhere you look, there was at least one person wearing or drinking their product. However, there were times while they were promoting their product or play music through the loud speaker, the noise became unbearable. In addition, when each one of the booths’ loud speakers are on at the same time, it was just became a nuisance to be in that specific area.



The local community of Kampong Cham also benefited greatly from the YCC Festival. Street food vendors poured into the area with their business offering great distinctive Cambodian food and treats. On the outskirts of the stadium wall were fun and thrilling games to play. Costing only 1000 riel a dart, contestants were challenged to try their luck of throwing the dart to hit one of the balloons on the wall. If you so happen to get lucky from hitting the balloon, you will be allowed to choose from a selection of prizes they offer that includes sandals, toy dolls, can sodas, and much more! But beware, some people tend to get lost in the fun that they lose track of how many darts they bought! If you happen to be one of those unfortunate few, you’ll be wondering “Where did all my money go?” Ice creams, fruits, and cold drinks are all highly recommended to cope with the scorching heat of the sun for this outside event.



Every activity that went on was for the youth. On both nights, several famous contemporary singers such as Khemara Sereymon and Sokun-Nisa sang to the crowd of Kampong Cham. At times the streets became so over packed from the condense population that traffic literally halted. A very negative part of the night event was the poor conduction of civilian flow in and out of the stadium. There was only one entrance to enter and leave! This would be a nightmare if extremely serious situation happened.



All in all, the Youth Festival was a great opportunity for youths and adults alike to be a part of all the fun and educational activities. The experience and knowledge that can gain will not only benefit the individual, but the future of Cambodia . Youth Festival is an event that cannot be missed!