Summer Madness 2005 to Commence on 1st July

Summer Madness, Ireland's premier Christian Youth Festival will take place from 1st-5th July 2005 in Belfast.

The festival is the largest Christian festival taking place in Ireland, and was started 20 years ago by the Church of Ireland Youth Department and now it draws almost 4,000 attendants every year. Most of the visitors are camping on site for the duration of the festival.

Even the age target of the festival's programme is 15-24, and so a considerable number of families are expected tp attend the festival.

During the Summer Madness, young people can learn "in one hour" how to write songs (workshop led by David Clements from Six Star Hotel) or how to be a DJ in workshop with The Smart Beats Team.

Among the other workshops are "Drum and Bass" workshop with Gus and Nik from The SM Band and Graffiti art with Lee Mitchell assisted by Matt McBriar.

An important part of festival is education via seminars, dealing with urgent topics in the life of young Christians in the modern society. Seminars aim to provide the answers in seminars such as "Straight talking on sex: for men only," "Mirror, mirror on the wall - Body image and well-being," seminar especially for girls or "Being a Christian in a macho world."

Organisers were happy to announce the performance of Bruce Kuhn in The Gospel According to St. Luke.

Bruce Kuhn as acted in such plays as Luke, Acts, Tales of Tolstoy and Cotton Patch Gospel, and he has performed at may universities and churches across the North America and Europe, as well as during many conferences, including the World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Holland or Festival '99 with Franklin Graham in Scotland.

As one of the main focuses of the festival is music, many Christian bands and stars have confirmed their participation, including Delirious?, The OC Supertones, Element and Rugandi.

In the background of the festival the "StreetReach" project will be running. The history of the project began as Summer Madness approached the Church Army with the idea of running a huge urban mission on the back of Summer Madness, and so the idea was born.

The message of StreetReach is simple - To take and show the love of God in practical ways to people in the most broken areas of our city. It works along side existing Churches, both Catholic and Protestant and community groups in conjunction with Belfast City Council, the police and relevant community leaders. This ensures that StreetReach is all part of an ongoing Christian outreach in that area.

The partner organisations for this year are Summer Madness, Church Army, Tearfund, MerseyFest and Ignite.