The Youth Festival Mladifest began in 1989 in Medjugorje. Fr. Slavko Barbarić wanted to help a group of young people understand God's presence in Medjugorje more deeply through songs and personal testimonies.
At the first festival, there were about 100 young people from several countries around the world. Gradually, the number of participants grew each year, and on the 21st anniversary in 2010, the number of pilgrims was already over 50,000.
Young people from 69 countries were present at the festival. Youth here have the opportunity to know God more deeply in sincere confession, through beautiful personal testimonies of people that can be heard here, through worship of Jesus at Adoration.