The Jubilat group of folk dance and songs, Poland

The Theatre School for Youth, Netherlands

ICFPA 2009 opens to a Grand colorful beginning in Delhi

Ryan Foundation’s ICFPA (International Children’s Festival of Performing Arts) celebrated its 10th anniversary of spreading peace and unity through the medium of performing arts at the National Bal Bhavan, New Delhi on 16th December 2009.

The little delegates brought soil from their countries which were collected in a pot. As a mark of global togetherness, minister of human resource development Kapil Sibal planted a sapling in the pot.

"While the plant would provide shade after growing up, these children would also become source of knowledge once they become young," said Sibal.

He said as culture, history, empathy unites people from across borders, at the same time religion and politics divide them into groups. "Let us all collect human knowledge to come together to achieve peace and harmony. Lets collect the value that unites us and make the world a place worth living. That’s what we are trying to do in Copenhagen and that is what we should try doing everywhere" he added.

Famous film maker Madhur Bhandarkar and tennis player Mahesh Bhupati were also present at the opening ceremony to greet almost 5,000 children from all over the world.

Delhi welcomed the festival and over 20,000 viewers thronged to fill all the four venues -National Bal Bhavan, Little Theatre Group, Pearey Lal Bhavan and Shri Ram Centre. The grand gala was a compilation of 250 productions from different countries and cultures. Trainers from selected nations worked together with the Indian children to facilitate the cultural exchange making it a 'festival for the children of the world'."This unique initiative is aiming at bringing children from different parts of the world under one roof and makes them perform on a single platform. Over the years the festival is growing with the expectations and of our participants and I am happy that it is entering into its 10th successful year. I hope children of Delhi will enjoy the performances and learn various cultures", said Managing Director Grace Pinto. To mark the occasion, an Opening Parade was carried out from Jantar Mantar to National Bal Bhavan in the morning with all the national and international participants at the festival. Children from across the world, walked hand in hand, with flags of all the nations flying high. These young global ambassadors represented the global mission of creating a world without violence, hatred and war as they sang together shouting slogans for a Peaceful World. It was a colorful extravaganza as circus jugglers, acrobats and scores of other entertainers joined the cosmopolitan march.

The festival is hosted by Ryan Foundation, which was founded by Chairman Dr. Augustine F. Pinto and Managing Director, Grace Pinto, who with their farsighted vision are relentlessly working to create unparalleled standards of education across the globe. 

ICFPA has gone through a brilliant journey of 9 years and in its 10th edition, it has been suffused with the creativity of Indian and International artists alike. 

Presented by Ryan Foundation in association with National Bal Bhavan and Indian Council for Cultural Relations, this festival will host over 5000 children from countries like Bangladesh, Germany, Iran, Israel, India, Latvia, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Zambia, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Switzerland, Thailand among other countries.