Bhubaneswar, Jan. 30: Youngsters from colleges and universities from all over the country have gathered at Puri to interact at a national festival that began on Thursday. The festival — Glory Fest 2011 — that concluded today was in its 16th year and proved to be a bridge between youth from different states.

Organised by the National Youth Integrated Centre (NYIC), a Puri-based NGO, the four-day event had many interesting cultural events to entertain the 330 student participants. “From personality development sessions, debate and group discussions to dance contests and fashion shows, the young participants were given opportunities to explore themselves in innovative ways,” said an organiser.

“The festival has been organised for the last 16 years since there is no other major festival to integrate and unite the youth of college and universities other than the National Youth Festival, which has school students as participants,” says Prabhakar Sathpathy, chairman of NYIC and former principal of SCS College, Puri. “Students of colleges and universities should connect with one another to understand the similarities and differences that exist in the culture and lifestyle of various states,” he adds.The event was inaugurated by Binayak Rath, vice-chancellor of Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Harekrushna Satpathy, vice-chancellor of Tirupati Sanskrit University, Tirupati and Neelakantha Pati, vice-chancellor of Jagannath Sanskrit University, Puri. Students from four universities and 20 colleges from Orissa and a number of universities and colleges from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Bengal, participated in the festival. More than 20 different events were held.

“I have made dozens of friends here. The festival has given us a great opportunity to get to know one another. We have found out about problems in other states of our country,” says Dhananjaya Pandey, a student from Tirupati.

“I was really excited to take part in the Glory Queen pageant that tested us girls for beauty and brains. Watching the folk dance and classical dance performances every day was also an amazing experience,” said Madhu, a student from Puri.