The atmosphere at the Shrine is amazing with young people trekking to marquees with sleeping bags in tow.

The theme of this year’s festival is ‘You are the light of the world’ and the aim of the festival is to show people that they are the light of the world and to make sure they are plugged in and switched on! It is a weekend ‘out’ from everything that’s going on in your life. It will help you to look inside and see ‘what’s going on with me’. It will help you get back in touch with yourself and also it will give you time to explore your faith.

This year the workshops are a great-added feature to the festival. They will run over two days and there will be workshops on art, clay & pottery, young families, mind, body meditation, hip hop dancing, love & relationships, quiet prayer and share groups. More information on these can be found on the website but Knock Youth Ministry Team can guarantee that there will be something for everyone.

The weekend is an opportunity to celebrate, explore and ignite your faith, it will help you to open your heart to God and be secure in the knowledge that God loves you and wants you to shine.

The media reports last year said described this festival as a “Woodstock for young believers”, while it bills itself as south Mayo’s “Oxygen” (sic) for young Catholics.
Ann Lee, the diorector of last year’s festival, said “We may not have Oxegen’s mud, and we may not have its numbers – but we have our faith to offer, and the Monsignor rocks!”

For more information or to register on this year’s festival check out http://www.knock-shrine.ie/youthfestival.

The Knock Youth Team also have a page on Bebo so you can check them out on http://www.bebo.com/Knockyouthministry as well.