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Two major pieces of Christian festival news broke last week: 1. In 2019, New Wine festivals are moving from Royal Bath and West Showground, Somerset to the East of England Showground, Peterborough. 2. After 27 years, Soul Survivor announced it’s final events will take place in 2019.
The latter was announced by Mike Pilavachi in an impassioned video on Friday night, he also mentioned that their Naturally Supernatural events would take a different form from 2020. Whilst he didn’t give away what was next for Soul Survivor he did say that he (and the rest of the team) were not retiring and that many exciting events and camps would be announced next summer.
To say the announcement ‘broke the internet’ would be an overstatement, however, my news feed was full this weekend of responses. Some heavy-hearted and mournful, others wishing the team well and reflecting on memories.
For me, growing up in Dorset, with Shepton Mallet just a 1 and a half hour country-road drive away, Soul Survivor provided a backdrop for my teenage years. Over 5 summers it saw me through first loves and perhaps inevitably, breaks ups. The ups and downs of teenage friendships and an awful bout of sickness (never fun when you’re under canvas). I learned more of who I was and who I was about to be: receiving exam results, finding out more about youth work degrees and gap year options. It was at Soul Survivor that I met the XLP team who i would eventually spend a year out with, I even fundraised for that internship with a sponsored silence for 24 hours at the festival and was in awe of the generosity of strangers.
One stand out moment from my first year when a group of people I’d never met before decided it was my birthday (6 months early) and handed me a tiara and some chocolate. Because that was the joyful nature of Soul Survivor, it was fun and exciting! All served up with a menu of hot chocolate mountains and batch-cooked chilli.
But it was so much more than that. My time at Soul Survivor taught me so much about what it means to grow up as a girl of God. I was healed, in part, by the words of ‘Oh no you never let go’ during a tumultuous summer. I was inspired by the stories of Simon Guillebaud. Empowered by the passion of Beth Redman and commissioned for my year out by the powerful words of Danielle Strickland’s preach, Bam Bam Baby! Yes, Soul Survivor was just a week (or two) each summer, but it’s impact was much further reaching.
Like many I assumed that Soul Survivor would be an ever present event on the Christian calendar. That one day I would, like my mum before me, be navigating a muddy campsite trying to locate ‘red 7’ or ‘blue 9’ to pick up my over-tired, croaky-voiced but fired-up for Jesus teens.
So in the words of Mike Pilavachi, I ‘come in to land’ with this: Soul Survivor will be so missed. Not just in my life but the thousands of lives that have been touched over the past 27 years. But above the sadness I am so excited to see what God has called them to do next.
Thank you to Mike, Andy, Ali and the whole of the team for their amazing work over the past decades, for pushing boundaries and for being obedient to God’s call.
Soul Survivor events are still on this summer and in 2019.
Looking for some summer plans? Check out our 2018 festival guide.
