Soul Survivors come to Guernsey

Mike Pilavachi was one of the founders of Soul Survivor

Described by local organiser Rob Girard as "the Glastonbury of Christian events" Soul Survivors came to Beau Sejour on 30 October 2009.

The main festival takes places over three weeks every summer in the UK and attracts more than 30,000 people.

Rob said: "It's a big worship festival that speaks to young people in terms of things that are relevant to them."

He said of the Guernsey event that "everyone enjoyed it and the feedback was great".

The Soul Survivor festival was set up in 1992 by Mike Pilavachi and Matt Redman as an offshoot of the New Wine festival and is aimed specifically at teenagers.

Soul Survivor in the UK attracts around 30,000 people each year

Rob said that many of the youngsters attend do so rather like other teenagers might go to music festivals or on holidays to places like Ibiza.

He explained that often parents are happier with their children attending Soul Survivor thanks to the perception of it being more of a "safe environment" than other holidays.

He went on to say that people who attend the events "come back with a real idea that God loves them and they want to show him the love as well".

To challenges that this could be perceived in a sinister light Rob said he had heard of such things but had never encountered such issues directly.

He said: "In my experience parents are quite interested to know what's making their youngsters feel this and want to give up certain things and change their path."

Rob said he hopes to see Soul Survivor return to the island in the future.