This page is sponsored by:
DISCOVER. DEVELOP. DEPLOY.
The goal of the LCS Festival is to focus on helping children find their talents, sharpen their skills, and learn to share their gifts with confidence, knowing that their gifts and talents are bestowed by God and are to be used humbly without fear.
The LCS Festival is a discipleship tool intended to help students discover, develop and deploy their ministry gifts. Although competitive elements are present, providing a competition venue is not the primary mission of the Festival. Through the Festival, students are given the opportunity to have their skills evaluated by qualified ministers, industry professionals, and educators who encourage excellence, offer ideas for improvement, and inspire students to use their gifts in the local church, community, and around the world in ministry or secular vocation. Scores are not as important as lessons learned, experience gained, and skills developed.
The Festival allows students to perform or demonstrate their skills and talents in dozens of different categories and events. Each event is evaluated by three professional adjudicators who provide detailed evaluations of each students presentation, giving guidance and observations that will help students to overcome weaknesses and improve their talents and skills. The Festival features events for students in grades 3 through 12, and is hosted in beautiful Lakeland, in the heart of Central Florida.
SAVE THE DATE!
2026 LCS Festival –
March 6-7, 2026 @ SEU!
 |
  |
Important Dates
SAVE THE DATE for 2026!
LCS Festival – March 6-7, 2026
November 15 – December 31 – Coordinator Registers
January 12, 2026 – Early Registration Deadline.
January 30, 2026 – FINAL Registration Deadline.
Students MUST be registered by 5:00 pm on January 30, 2026.
February 5, 2026 – ALL 2D Art, Writing and Digital Entries due.
All 2D Art MUST be physically delivered to the LCS office by 5:00 pm on Thursday, February 5.
February 13, 2026 – Change request deadline; no changes will be accepted after this date. Only drops will be allowed.
February 27 – Festival Schedule will be posted.
TBD- District Fine Arts Festival on-time deadline for “Superior w/ Invitation” participants. (https://youth.penflorida.org/fine-arts/)
Friday
11:00 AM
- Check-In for COORDINATOR ONLY at the Information Tent.
- Science Fair project boards drop off, Fire Pit (Wresting Gym), 11:00 am
- Sculptures and Ceramics for Art Fair drop off, Fire Pit (Wrestling Gym), 11:00 am
- Information Tent will be designated pick up for t-shirt pre-orders. The School Coordinator is the contact point for each school, please be sure to have contact information given to all parents and chaperones so that they are able to receive their t-shirt orders upon arrival.
11:00 AM – Festival begins
- **Please note: Math Olympics participants MUST arrive at the math room by 10 minutes prior to the start of the event to ensure testing begins on time. Please bring or eat lunch prior to arriving as no meal options will be available (Southeastern is on spring break).**
3:30 PM to 6:00 PM – Food available!
7:30 PM – Festival Closes for Day 1
Saturday
8:00 AM – Festival reopens for Day 2
12:30 PM – Festival closes for Day 2
3:00 PM – Celebration Service – at Victory Christian Academy, 1401 Griffin Road, Lakeland, FL
Once category schedules have been posted on the website, please be aware that each category allows for a limited time for each performance. The schedule must be followed. If you have a student who dropped or a substitute, you will have a chance to make the change at check-in.
If a student is competing in a Spelling Bee and misses a scheduled performance, please visit the Information Table to request an official slot change. This is the ONLY EXCEPTION to the change of schedule since Spelling Bees can sometimes run over schedule.
Southeastern University
Lakeland, Florida
1000 Longfellow Blvd.
Lakeland, FL 33801
The LCS Festival is held at the beautiful campus of Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. Southeastern University is located in the city of Lakeland in Polk County, Florida the heart of citrus country. Surrounded by the beautiful lakes that characterize Central Florida, the 60-acre campus presents an attractive and picturesque scene for the students’ pleasure and academic environment. The natural beauty of the lakes and citrus groves, combined with a semi-tropical atmosphere and lifestyle, makes Lakeland a delightful place to attend college and enjoy Florida winters. The average annual temperature is 72 degrees. With a population of 200,000, the greater Lakeland area is less than one hour from Florida’s world renowned tourist attractions—Sea World, Busch Gardens, Epcot Center, Universal Studios and Walt Disney World. In addition, the Gulf of Mexico can be reached in an hour and the Atlantic Ocean in less than two hours.
Lakeland is centrally located between Tampa and Orlando and is easily accessible via the international airports of each city. Three major highways serve the Lakeland area: US 92, US 98, and Interstate 4.
SEU will be on spring break during the Festival. As such, the food outlets will not be available to us.
We are excited to partner with the following vendors to bring quality food services to our event this year.
Food Services will be set up in the circle next to Bush Chapel. You can view the map for specifics. Follow the signs from the Fountain!
Celebration Service
The LCS Festival ends on Saturday afternoon with a celebration festival where students are recognized for their achievements. The Celebration Service will be at Victory Church, 1401 Griffin Rd, Lakeland, FL 33810. During the service, participants are recognized for their performances and the top three scores are read. The top scorers in each category will receive a medal of achievement. All other categories will receive a commemorative certificate with their performance category and rating. The top score in each group category will also receive a trophy for their school.
Several specific categories are featured as “Performance Categories.” A Performance Category is a category that is chosen during the event for presentation in the celebration service. If a category is a performance category, it will be announced during the service prior to the reading of the top three scores in that category. The winner of that category will have a few minutes to prepare before presenting before the entire audience. It is a wonderful time for everyone to see the rich talent that populates our schools!
District Fine Arts
Students scoring with a “Superior With Invitation” at the 2025 LCS Festival are invited to participate in the PenFlorida Youth District Fine Arts program. Fine Arts will help students further develop their skills and talents and also provide them the opportunity to advance to Nationals in August. For $10.00 off, LCS Festival students with a “Superior With Invitation” may use the discount code: 10off2025
Watch the Celebration Service LIVE on Saturday at 3 PM!