LAS VEGAS, Nevada — On Saturday, Oct. 17, youth throughout Southern Nevada gathered at the UNLV Intramural Field for the Las Vegas Youth Music Festival — an opportunity for youth ages 11-18 to celebrate the joy of being a disciple of Jesus Christ through music. Strive to Be recording artists Garon Brett, Patch Crowe, Ysabelle Cuevas, Liahona Olayan and Elder Blake Walker performed in the concert. Local youth singers were also given the opportunity to audition and perform as solo artists or in the choir.
For Dallan Affleck and Carami Olsen, the brother/sister duo who helped organize the festival along with Jason Steffen, this had to be an event for all the youth of Southern Nevada.
“I know that the Lord is in this. ... I didn’t know why in the beginning,” Affleck said.
Rachel Affleck, Dallan’s wife, shared what they have learned. “This event is building bridges across the community, and bringing Christian music into our community.”
Avery Affleck is a senior in high school who sang in the youth choir at the Las Vegas Youth Music Festival.
“It’s really unique because it’s pulling people together from all across the valley, and I think it’s just great to come together in Christ,” she said.
The planning committee included adults and a special youth committee. Youth committee chair Ian Wolfgramm, a senior at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts who was also one of the featured local solo artists, reflected on the process of watching the festival come together.
“Since the start of the audition process to where I’m standing now, it’s really just shown me how Christ can take things that are so small and make them huge,” Wolfgramm said. “It’s shown me that what Christ wants to happen will come to pass. His hand is always the last word.”
Thirty-three stakes came together for the Youth Music Festival. Las Vegas Nevada Lone Mountain Stake President William H. “Bud” Stoddard spoke to the youth at the beginning of the concert on behalf of all 33 stake presidents, who he said were all immediately excited and on board when they heard the idea.
“We want you to know that this is because of you, because we love you, and most importantly, we want you to know that your Heavenly Father loves you,” President Stoddard told the gathered youth.
Grace Severance is a senior in high school from the Las Vegas Nevada Meadows Stake who sang in the youth choir.
“Seeing all the people that have come today — it is just so breathtaking and so fun and so full of energy,” Severance said, adding that this experience has drawn her closer to Heavenly Father. “He has told me and shown me that this is where I’m meant to be, and this is how I can share my testimony — how I can share that God loves you, and you will never be alone, and music can take you through anything, and it can help you with everything.”
For one Strive to Be artist, the hand of the Lord was especially evident in the process. Elder Blake Walker is currently serving as a missionary in the Nevada Las Vegas East Mission, and he heard about the Las Vegas Youth Music Festival for the first time while he was in the Provo Missionary Training Center. He received special permission from his mission president in Las Vegas to participate.
While focusing on traditional missionary work throughout the day, Elder Walker made time to practice on his own time in his apartment.
“I would practice at my apartment with my companions, and it was really awkward,” Elder Walker laughed, explaining that he would sing through his songs in the closet or another room over and over again. “My companions really got to see the behind-the-scenes process.”
Elder Walker was only able to practice with the band and the full group beginning the night before the concert, but he says it was all worth it because of how important this is to him.
“Music has been the building block of my testimony,” Elder Walker explained. “Being here, being able to talk to different youth who also love Jesus Christ and love the music is so incredible, because music really does go beyond barriers. It builds common ground between people. It unites people. The fact that we get to share a message not only about music but also about Jesus Christ and how incredible he is just so inspiring.”
“I really hope that the youth know that our whole purpose here on earth is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,” Elder Walker said. “It doesn’t start when we put the name tag on — it starts now.”
For Hayden Proctor, a senior in high school who auditioned and sang in the youth choir on stage, participating in the Youth Music Festival was a chance to grow spiritually.
“Participating in the Las Vegas Youth Music Festival has increased my testimony,” Proctor said. “I’ve been able to see the testimonies of my friends, my peers. I find that the greatest way to grow your own testimony is to see the testimonies of those around you, and to draw on that for inspiration. To see how they see things differently, and to incorporate that into yourself.”
— Jeanette Hayes is a Las Vegas, Nevada, metro public relations media specialist.
See more photos of the event below.
