History
The idea of an international student festival in Trondheim came to life in 1988. The thought was to gather students from different parts of the world in a combination of a conference and a festival.
The title of ISFiT 1990 was A Changing Europe, a timely theme considering that the Berlin Wall fell shortly before the festival was held. ISFiT arranged for two trains, one from Budapest and one from Paris, to transport 375 students from all over Europe to Trondheim. For many of the participants, this was their first visit outside the Iron Curtain. This train ride has later been called "the ISFiT Rail".
In 1992, ISFiT had already established its name in the world. More than 4,300 applications was addressed to Trondheim from students all over the world.
In 1994, the Dalai Lama visited ISFiT after a visit from dedicated ISFiT representatives who went to India and spent days outside his office until they got a 10 minute meeting with him. He was reported to have replied "Cancel my other appointments. This is more important". 1994 was also the year that ISFiT started to give financial support so that participants from even more countries could come to the festival.
The Dialogue Groups were first introduced in 1997. Since then, the Dialogue Groups have been a seminar where participants from different sides of a conflict get to meet at neutral ground to share their experiences and discuss possible solutions to the conflict.
The Student Peace Prize was introduced in 1999. Since then, the prize has been awarded every second year on behalf of all Norwegian students. Antero Benedito da Silva from East Timor was the first laureate. He received the award for his non-violent battle against the Indonesian occupation.
Many world figures have attended ISFiT and past speakers include former Director-General of WHO Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates José Ramos-Horta, Wangari Maathai, Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams and Shirin Ebadi. Former US president Bill Clinton has participated through video conference.
Since 2003, the festival has had participants from more than a hundred countries.
Read more about this topic: International Student Festival In Trondheim
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