Soul Survivor (charity)

History

By 1993 the number of young people attending the annual Summer New Wine Christian Family Conference at the Royal Bath and West Showground in Somerset was significant enough for the organisers of New Wine to launch a special youth event. The first Soul Survivor conference took place in the Summer of 1993 under the leadership of Mike Pilavachi, a youth worker at St Andrew's Church, Chorleywood. Like New Wine, the Soul Survivor conferences were originally overseen by St Andrew's Church. The conference was the inspiration of Pilavachi and one of his church youth club members, Matt Redman who regularly led the worship at early Soul Survivor events.

1,896 young people attended the first Soul Survivor festival and in 1995, the event split across two weeks (Soul Survivor A and Soul Survivor B). By 2006 attendance at the events was around 25,000 spread over the two weeks. In 2007 Soul Survivor C was launched at the Royal Cheshire Showground, but there was a reshuffle in 2008 when Soul Survivor A moved to the Stafford County showground with B and C remaining at the Royal Bath and West Showground.

The Momentum festival, aimed at students and young people in their twenties and thirties was founded in 2004, and a new event called Naturally Supernatural is being launched in 2017.

A fourth week of Soul Survivor was launched in July 2014 at the Thainstone Centre in Inverurie, Scotland.

It was announced in 2016 that 2016's Week B&C will be the last held at the Bath & West Showground before the move to the Peterborough Arena.

Church

While it shares its name and leadership with Soul Survivor, Soul Survivor Watford is a separate organisation and registered charity from Soul Survivor. It is based in two converted warehouses in Watford, Hertfordshire. It was established in 1993 by Mike Pilavachi.

Festivals

At present, four separate Soul Survivor festivals take place every year within the UK:

Soul Survivor A - A 5-day festival based at the Stafford County Showground in Staffordshire aimed at teenagers.
Soul Survivor B & C - Two 5-day festivals based at the Royal Bath and West Showground near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, aimed at teenagers. (From 2017 this will be held in Peterborough)
Momentum - A 5-day festival based at the Royal Bath and West Showground aimed at students and those in their twenties and thirties. (The 2016 event will take place at stafford)

The festivals consist of seminars, sporting events and art, music and drama workshops during the day, and a charismatic worship service followed by live bands in the evening.

In 2014 there was also a Soul Survivor based at Thainstone Centre, Aberdeen in Scotland. Soul Survivor Scotland returned in 2015 in Lendrick Muir where it is also set to return in 2016.

Live albums

The worship at the Soul Survivor festivals is recorded, and each year a live album is released with the most popular new songs from the festival. Each album often contains original songs from Soul Survivor's worship team, as well as traditional and contemporary songs from other artists and ministries. The albums are published by Survivor Records.

"Soul In The City"

"Soul In The City London" was a 2004 outreach mission in which 20,000 young people from around the world gathered in London to undertake practical projects and evangelistic events.

The idea for Soul In The City started with Message 2000 and Festival: Manchester which were jointly held by Soul Survivor and The Message Trust

Soul Survivor also organised "Soul In The City Durban" which took place in Summer 2009 in Durban, South Africa.

Worldwide

Soul Survivor has spread across the globe and now holds festivals and other events in the following locations: