The 20-day-long country-wide 'Festival of Youth 2025' has entered its final stretch and will come to a close on February 19, said a press release from the Chief Adviser's Press Wing.

According to the press release, at least 71,66,473 youths – 27,42,171 of them women and 44,24,302 men – have directly participated in the festivities. It also said that a total of 13,711 events took place as part of the festival, of which 2,931 were sports and cultural events for women.

It further read that a countrywide Under-17 football tournament was held under the supervision of directorate of sports, where 25,600 girls competed in 855 matches.

Country's different sports bodies held various competitions and training events as part of the festival.

The festival was organised in collaboration with the 11th Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), which came to an end on February 7.

Other than organising the BPL, the Bangladesh Cricket Board also ran a National School Cricket tournament where 350 schools took part and also an inter-university cricket tournament where 56 universities participated during the festival.

The Bangladesh Football Federation staged a day-long football tournament in Sylhet for the tea plantation workers and local Khasi people, a beach football event in Cox's Bazar, U-15 tournament across 64 districts, a four-day training camp for the underprivileged women's footballers in the three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tract region among other events.

All 56 active sports bodies of the country also organised events as part of the festival. Bangladesh Archery Federation's Open Archery competitions, Bangladesh Taekwando Federation's taekwando competition in Dhaka where 400 men and women took part, Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation's U-18 men's and women's Youth Kabaddi were a few of the notable ones listed in the press release.

Besides sporting events, cultural events, digital literacy campaigns, tree planting events, debate competitions, cleanliness campaigns, youth entrepreneur programmes, free medical camp etc were organised at the district and upazila level, said the release.

Students of various public and private universities also took part in the festivities as various events such as case competitions, debate competitions, youth concerts and cultural nights were held in various campuses.

The festival had officially commenced on December 1, 2024, with the media launching and logo unveiling ceremony. Sports adviser and convener of the national committee for the festival of youth Asif Mahmud inaugurated the festival.

Under the direct supervision of the Chief Adviser's office, 25 ministries and divisions, 23 different departments worked in partnership to make this festival a success.