Wednesday 4 April: World Youth Day 2008 (WYD08) today invited performers and creative artists from around Australia and the world to apply to participate in its Youth Festival next year.

The three-day Youth Festival takes place in the middle of WYD08 week - 15-20 July 2008 - and will feature music, performing arts, visual art exhibitions, debate, film, community gatherings, street performers, workshops and a vocations expo.

"These are just some of the ways we are encouraging the youth of Australia and the world creatively to express and present their faith," WYD08 Coordinator Bishop Anthony Fisher OP said.

"The Youth Festival is the perfect way for pilgrims to share their culture and faith as well as contribute to the experience of what is set to be an unforgettable event.

"We want young people to create and to appreciate, but above all, to participate," he said.

Youth Festival activities will take place in the afternoons and evenings at venues across the city - in parks, playing fields, churches, halls, galleries and outdoor performance spaces.

Applications are expected from bands, visual artists, actors, poets, dancers, movements, associations, individual speakers and other creative people.

"Performances, debates and exhibitions will reflect the Catholic vision and objectives of WYD08," Bishop Fisher said.

Some of the acts expected to appear at World Youth Day include Bronx-based rapper/preacher Father Stan Fortuna and Australian band Portico 77 - both of whom performed at a special one-off show outside St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney last Sunday.

Applications to present, perform or facilitate a Youth Festival activity are available at www.wyd2008.org and close on 26 October.

World Youth Day is the largest youth event in the world and will attract an anticipated 500,000 to the Final Mass, including 125,000 international visitors to Sydney from 15-20 July in 2008.

WYD08 will also mark the first visit by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Australia.