Bologna, Italy – May 2024 – On Sunday, 5 May 650 teenagers and young adults filled Piazza Lucio Dalla in Bologna with enthusiasm and joy, with the 2024 Festival of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) with young people from Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Switzerland and San Marino. From the previous day, teenagers from the Leaders Formation School were at the Our Lady of San Luca institute where, led by a large group of formators they began the work of preparation for the Festival. At dawn on Sunday morning, with vans, minibuses and trolleys all loaded, the entertainers moved to Piazza Lucio Dalla to begin preparations for the Festival. The groups that came for this event were welcome with music and dances, making them immediately enter the atmosphere. During the morning, the young people were involved in four workshops on music, theatre, dance and street art, coordinated by professionals. These workshops were enriched by the two testimonies by Fr Gianmarco Pernice, a Salesian and street artist by passion, and Simone Lupo, a young man from Arese whose life was changed by the Salesian oratory. The centre of the event was the Mass celebrated by Fr José Miguel Nunez, Extraordinary Visitor to the Lombardy-Emilian Province, Italy (ILE) on behalf of the Rector Major of the Salesians, who urged young people not to be afraid and to rediscover "the Salesian sacrament of presence". The afternoon was animated by sports tournaments in the fields set up in the surrounding park, and by giant games built by the leaders. The show, the result of the work of the morning workshops, attracted numerous passers-by and concluded the event.