NORTH OGDEN — On Saturday, youth members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from around the globe will converge upon meetinghouses and other venues to watch a church-organized music festival broadcast.

The church encouraged area leaders to let their youth lead in organizing local events. To that end, members in the North Ogden area decided that bigger was better.

The North Ogden East Stake and other area stakes will participate in a celebration and viewing event for “Festival: A Youth Concert” at the Barker Park Amphitheater, located at approximately 2400 N. Fruitland Drive, Saturday evening.

North Ogden East Stake Young Men’s President Todd Whiteley told the Standard-Examiner that 2,000-3,000 people are expected to attend the event.

“We certainly were looking at doing it at a stake level, but then we got thinking and communicating with some other neighboring stakes of ours and we decided, ‘You know what, it’d be kind of fun to maybe make it bigger,'” Whiteley said.

Whiteley notes that about 10 stakes are expected to participate in the North Ogden event, including local stakes from other cities like Pleasant View and Ogden.

Activities at Barker Park will begin at 7:30 p.m. and the concert will be shown from 8:30-9:30 p.m.

“They’re going to be doing some dancing, some singing, different activities. … Just some fun, good, wholesome activities,” Whiteley said. “There’ll be some games and some treats and things like that that will be given out.”

Whiteley praised the youth membership in his stake for taking ownership of the event and spearheading its planning.

“We all met with a bunch of those youth and all of those stakes and their leaders over here at the amphitheater in Barker Park, and we actually just kind of hammered out what they wanted to do, and it was, really, it was them,” Whiteley said.

“They’re incredible youths. They just stood up and they conducted the meeting and figured out what they wanted to do and how to do it.”

“Festival: A Youth Concert,” which emanated from Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, was taped in early June.

The concert featured music from the church’s recent “Strive to Be” albums. Performers included Liahona Olayan, Connor Austin, Jarica Jamison, Ben Olsen, Ashley Hess, Aitana Alapa, Yaphet Bostos, Garon Brett, Benjamin Josiah and Patch Crowe.

“It’s good to have good, wholesome music in our lives,” Whiteley added. “It helps bless our lives and it helps bring the spirit, I believe, into our lives and into our homes.”

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