On Friday the 7^th July, two minibuses full of teenagers (Year 7+) descend on Longridge Methodist Church, armed with pillows and sleeping bags. As if that isn’t bad enough, a couple of hours later they then arrive at Blackpool Winter Gardens, dressed in all their green and yellow finery.

- a weekend of upbeat Christian worship, activities and music; when 1,500 people come to Blackpool dressed in green and yellow, and make a huge racket with the constant chant of "Oggie, oggie, oggie…..oi, oi, oi!"

On Friday night everyone gathered in the Ballroom of the Winter Gardens for various forms of entertainment, including a mime band, some large games and circus skills led by a group called ‘Vertical Reality’, (who taught some of our group to spin plates and ended with a juggling light show to music from ‘The Matrix’). Then it was time to go back to Longridge to sleep for the night.

Saturday started off with a welcome show, again in the Ballroom. During this the Youth President, Kev, was voted in by audience participation to be gunged; Mike Seaton (MAYC Nation Youth Secretary) and Rachel Appleyard (who is involved with the creative and musical side) narrowly missed this! We were also hugely entertained by a ska band ‘Sound of Salvation’, who encouraged us to "Skank in the light of God"!

Before lunch we also explored the World Action Zone area (stalls and information points) and the Olympia area (sport-themed activities). In the afternoon unfortunately most of our group missed the show ‘Beautiful Freak’ to watch the ‘Battle of the Bands’. This included a band (‘Crossfire’) comprised of three members from St. Cuthbert’s (James & Peter Halliwell and Chris King) and Leighton Holyfield from Fulwood Methodist. Three bands each played a quarter of an hour set for judges, including Rachel Appleyard and the American band ‘The Listening’. The winning band was called ‘Blind Vision’ and played a slot on the evening stage as well as chance to spend a day at a recording studio.

There were a number of workshops going on in the afternoon but our group had not booked into any. Instead some of us went into Blackpool. Totally apart from Breakout there was an air show happening that weekend, with huge kites taking over the beach and an impressive display by the Red Arrows.

We went back to the Winter Gardens in time to help set out the area for the MAYC Orchestra and Singers concert. Then we stayed for most of their concert, which many people from Fulwood came to. They sang a mixture of songs, from modern film soundtracks to Wesley hymns! We are lucky to have so many of those talented singers from the youth in our circuit!

During the O&S concert, however, there were bands playing in the Ballroom including ‘thebandwithnoname’ and ‘The Listening’. We went to see ‘The Listening’ play and also met them and got their autographs! Then we went back to Longridge for the night. 

Sunday was all based around praising God. The worship was split into two "halves", as this was World Cup Final weekend. The first half was talking about NCH because it was NCH Sunday. We were visited by Cedric the Dragon, sang lots of songs and watched some sketches. Then the second half began, which was a Walk of Witness down towards the beach and then the finale of worship on the seafront. This included worship at the four-points of the compass; we turned to face each direction and balloons were released for each time. We sang some more songs and then finished the weekend. We made our way home on the minibus and most us went and watched the World Cup Final!

Next Breakout will be in 2008 and is planned to be at Cliff College.

www.mayc.info

Anna Sheasby (16)