Four days in Paris from 15–18 October 2026 for delegates aged 18–40 from over 120 countries, with 350 scholarships across three tiers. All nationalities, no academic requirement.
The Global Youth Festival is HISA's flagship international gathering: four days in Paris in October, with up to 500 delegates expected from more than 120 countries. The programme mixes policy dialogue with creative workshops, mentorship and cultural exchange.
It is the event behind most of the "youth summit Paris 2026" searches, and it is worth being precise about what it is — a festival and leadership summit run by an independent institute, not a UN or UNESCO programme, despite the Paris setting leading people to assume otherwise.
15–18 October 2026, in Paris. Attendance for all four days is mandatory for scholarship holders.
Anyone aged 18 to 40 at the time of the event, of any nationality. Working English is required. Unusually, there is no academic or professional background requirement — you do not need a degree, an institutional affiliation or a research record, which makes this one of the more open programmes of its size.
350 awards across three tiers, and the difference between them is substantial:
Tier 1 — Fully Funded Global Scholar (100 awards) Return airfare support, full visa fee reimbursement, three nights' shared accommodation, meals and full festival access.
Tier 2 — Partially Funded Scholar (100 awards) Accommodation, meals and festival access. You arrange and pay for your own travel. For most applicants outside Europe this is the largest single cost, so a Tier 2 award is a meaningful contribution rather than a free trip.
Tier 3 — Festival Pass Scholar (150 awards) Festival access only. No travel, no accommodation, no meals.
Read your offer letter for which tier you have been given before booking anything. "I received a scholarship to Paris" covers all three, and they are not the same proposition.
There is an application fee, and it is non-refundable even for scholarship applications. Paid participation packages, for those not applying for a scholarship, run from $99 to $499.
That fee structure is worth weighing honestly: you are paying to apply, with no guarantee of an award, and 350 awards against a field drawn from 120 countries means most applicants will not receive one.
Paris means a Schengen visa for most non-EU applicants. Tier 1 reimburses the visa fee, but reimbursement comes after the fact and does not speed up an appointment. Schengen waiting times run to several weeks in many countries, and October is not a quiet season — start the process the moment you are accepted.
Applications are handled by HISA through their own site. Use the official link on this page; we do not administer this festival or take applications for it.
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