THE SUMMER of 1998 saw the biggest Soul Survivor festival ever with over 12,000 young people attending the two festivals, each for five days of worship, teaching and ministry. An outdoor extension with 50 foot video screen was used at Soul Survivor B as numbers reached 6,600. Over 1,500 sat outside for the main celebrations. Live The Life was the theme this year and the challenge was to do just that. Over the two weeks a vast number of young people made first time commitments to Jesus, while thousands of others responded to the call to go back to their own homes and make a difference. Mike Pilavachi said, "We were thrilled at the number of non-Christians attending the festivals. Seeing hundreds make a commitment to Jesus was a great encouragement for us, especially as we move towards Soul Survivor - The Message 2000 in Manchester." The Cage offered some premium gigs from Delirious?, Sarah Masen, the Newsboys, the World Wide Message Tribe and Tree, a three-piece from South Africa who made their debut appearance in the UK and who proved to be a major hit. A number of new ventures were launched at the summer festivals this year not least was Storm, an evangelistic dance band based at Soul Survivor Watford led by Beth Redman. They will be going into schools' both locally and nationally sharing the Gospel with dance music and testimony. The Storm album is now available through Survivor Records.