Summer Madness
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- This article is about a festival. For the film, see Summertime (film).
Summer Madness is Ireland's largest Christian festival. It usually takes place over the first weekend in July in the King's Hall, South Belfast
The festival was started up nearly twenty years ago by the Church Of Ireland Youth Department. It was previously held in Gosford Forest Park, Armagh, but due to the foot and mouth crisis in 2001, the festival re-located to the King's Hall, where it has remained ever since.
The festival is largely aimed at young people, and mainly consists of the 15-24 age group, however it is also popular with families and runs the "Feet First" programme for under-11s. The festival generally attracts around 5000 visitors a year, and many of these choose to camp on site.
There are a wide variety of activities on offer during the day. Seminars, debates and workshops are run daily in various venues around the King's Hall, with topics ranging from homosexuality and the church to eating disorders to mission and servanthood. In addition to this, there is a large sports and activities programme, an internet cafe, a venue for clergy and youth leaders, and a cinema. There is a large exhibition hall, with a bookshop, games area, and a cafe venue run by Tearfund. This sells Fair Trade produce as part of the group's "Lift The Label" campaign.
The festival places great emphasis on the arts with the SMart programme and a number of local bands play each year. For the past two years, the Christian rock group Delirious? have played concerts at the festival, and other big names such as Kevin Max and The OC Supertones have also visited. Every year, the Avalon Acoustic Afternoons competition is won. This gives promising local singer/songwriters the chance to compete for the prize of an Avalon Gold series guitar and a day in a recording studio. There is also a "steeky beats" venue for dance music fans, held nightly.
The focal point of the festival however, is worship meetings, held twice-daily in the King's Hall. Here, the vast majority of campers will join to worship God and listen to teaching. Past speakers have included Jeff Lucas, Mike Pilavachi and Tre Sheppard of the band Onehundredhours. Past worship leaders have included Matt Redman, Andy Flannagan and Ian Hannah and leaders for 2006 will be Tim Hughes and local musician Johnny Parks. On the Sunday morning of the festival, a communion service is held using liturgy, which many consider a very central point of the festival.
Summer Madness has a trained Prayer Ministry team, and in 2005 introduced several different points of response for the daily meetings. These included a prayer wall, a candle lit reflective vanue, and the opportunity for artistic response.
Summer Madness is immediately followed by Streetreach.
