“It is with great joy that we reveal that the World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 will take place from August 1st to 6th, 2023”, said Manuel Clemente, cardinal-patriarch of Lisbon, in a communiqué issued by the organisation.

According to Manuel Clemente, “young people from all over the world have long wanted to know the date of WYD Lisbon 2023 to prepare in greater detail for their visit to Lisbon”.

According to information made available today, "the work teams that make up the Local Organising Committee (COL), the executive body for the preparation and organisation of WYD Lisbon 2023, already have more than 400 volunteers, most of whom are Portuguese."

World Youth Day (WYD) was begun by John Paul II, in 1985, and since then it has been highlighted as a moment of meeting and sharing for millions of people all over the world.

The first edition took place in 1986, in Rome, and since then WYD has been to Buenos Aires (Argentina, 1987), Santiago de Compostela (Spain, 1989), Czestochowa (Poland, 1991), Denver (United States, 1993), Manila (Philippines, 1995), Paris (France, 1997), Rome (Italy, 2000), Toronto (Canada, 2002), Cologne (Germany, 2005), Sydney (Australia, 2008), Madrid (Spain, 2011), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2013), Krakow (Poland, 2016) and Panama City (Panama, 2019).

It was on January 27, 2019, in Panama, that Pope Francis' choice of the city of Lisbon to host the next World Youth Day was announced.

WYD Lisbon 2023, which is expected to attract around one million young people from around the world, will take place in the grounds of the Tagus River, north of Parque das Nações, and will be closed by the Pope.

Initially scheduled for the summer of 2022, the initiative was postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.