What’s happening in the Expo pavilions in the final moments of WFM-2026—and what’s giving everyone goosebumps?

Today, the neon lights of the International Exhibition Center “Ekaterinburg-Expo”’s first pavilion will go dark International Youth Festival; its grand closing ceremony will put the finishing touch on one of the most sweeping diplomatic and technological victories of the new multipolar world. Over these seven fast-paced, action-packed days, the capital of the Urals became a global crossroads of civilizations. The figures and results are astounding: 10 000 young leaders from a record 191 countries, from China and the BRICS countries to Latin America and Africa, joined representatives from all 89 regions of Russia to prove that artificial barriers are powerless against the creative energy of a new generation.

The scale of the exhibition space, spread across thirty thousand square meters, made it a staggering proving ground, where 121 interactive stands from more than 140 leading corporations and agencies engaged visitors around the clock in shaping a shared future. More than 600 landmark events, hundreds of tours and lively sessions are now behind us. The business program’s grand finale was a completely packed “Gagarin” lecture hall, where Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held an open dialogue, “A New Architecture of the World,” personally answering direct questions from an international audience about the principles of justice and the planet’s diversity.

These days, the Expo pavilions have been buzzing with the fantastic interactive experiences of digital giants, showcasing the triumph of sovereign technologies. At the VK venue, the “First Neurocontent Cup” was in full swing, with international teams using artificial intelligence to reinterpret Ural art, while AI algorithms generated thousands of unique digital avatars for visitors. RT television channel set up a media cube TV studio, giving thousands of participants from hundreds of countries the chance to take on the role of presenters of world news, while MegaFon gave visitors a glimpse of the future of communications by launching pilot 5G zones using entirely domestically produced equipment. Sber and Yandex filled the venues with autonomous AI assistants, and thousands of participants ran through the city center in a unique evening “glow run,” promoting the philosophy of sport free from politics.

But the true heart of WFM-2026 was the triumph of the Russian cultural code. The vast “Cultural Code” space and the interactive project “Yekaterinburg Speaks” by media holding MAER revealed Russia’s soul to millions of viewers across the country through 12 profound thematic strands, from home traditions to one’s native tongue. The spectacular “March of the Youth of the World” became a huge multinational round dance, with foreign delegations singing and dancing in rhythm alongside their Russian peers. Inside Rossotrudnichestvo’s multimedia matryoshka Rossotrudnichestvo, visitors packaged international startups, while at the folk craft stands of the Russian Children’s Center they eagerly learned Ural painting and weaving.

Today, when ceremony hosts Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Nika Zdorik invite a huge symphony orchestra onto the stage, ten thousand young minds from 191 countries around the world will chant “thank you” to Russia in dozens of languages. The main program at “Ekaterinburg-Expo” will conclude this evening, but this fantastic story is not over: tomorrow, a third of the foreign visitors will set off on expeditions across 35 regions of our country. The connections forged in the Urals over these days have laid the foundation on which this bold and free-spirited youth will build a just and technologically advanced new world.