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Latter-day Saint youth around the world are participating in “Festival: A Youth Concert,” a series of events focused on expressing faith in Jesus Christ through worship music. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has encouraged its global areas to organize gatherings where youth can sing along to songs from recent Strive to Be albums and singles.
This year, organizers had three options for their local events: use pre-recorded concerts filmed in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil; hold their own concerts with local singers performing the same songs; or create entirely original music events. The pre-recorded concerts became available online on August 7 in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
The English-language concert was filmed at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on June 11, 2025. Nearly 2,000 youth attended the event at Cougar Field. Performers included Strive to Be artists such as Liahona Olayan, Benjamin Taylor, James Thorup, Reina Ley, Sister Ellie Barry, Ashley Hess, Pearce Morris, JRay Kuhn, Connor Austin, Rylee Paige, Jay Phung, Hanna Eyre and Patch Crowe.
“This is not about performance,” said Taylor during the concert. “This is about our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are His followers, right? We are His disciples. We choose to look to Him in every thought. So tonight, we celebrate our faith in Him. We celebrate our gratitude, we celebrate our praise. He is the reason why we’re all here.”
In Brazil’s São Paulo area on April 19th, a Portuguese-language concert featured João Daniel, Beatriz Marmelo, Nicole Luz, Gabrielly Lourenço, Patch Crowe (who also appeared in the English concert), Vinícius Arevallo and Nicholas Shigekiyo.
Mexico City hosted the Spanish-language event on June 14 with performers including Naxhieli Mellin Martínez Cruz and others from Latin America.
Some regions chose to produce their own live festivals rather than using pre-recorded content. In Davao City in the Philippines on August 2nd—an event broadcast across social media—youth watched performances by Ysabelle Cuevas and several other local artists at watch parties throughout the country.
Pearce Morris spoke about worship music’s purpose during a Church News Podcast in June: “I think of worship music as music that helps us have a focus on Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. At the core is the message that leads us closer to Them. And I think there’s different styles of music that are worship music,” he said.
Morris also emphasized that expanding worship music beyond traditional hymns helps reach a broader audience—including people outside the Latter-day Saint faith—by showing they also worship Jesus Christ.
Strive to Be music is accessible via multiple platforms such as the Children and Youth 2025 website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/youth/childrenandyouth/2025), Gospel Library app (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/gospel-library), YouTube channel Strive to Be (https://www.youtube.com/c/strivetobe), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4yNkS1B1rXGQKpDuzgFhzy), Sacred Music app (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/pages/mobileapps/sacred-music?lang=eng) and Gospel Living app (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/pages/mobileapps/gospel-living?lang=eng).
Morris added that this type of music serves all ages: “This is as much … for someone who’s 74 who likes to listen to music on their walks as it is for someone that just got done with baseball practice that’s 16 years old. It points people to Jesus Christ. That message is for everyone.”
For further details about similar events held previously in Arizona see this Church News article.
