[3] Pope Benedict XVI revealed the location of the event at the final Mass in Australia at Sydney's Royal Randwick Racecourse during World Youth Day 2008.

Spanish bishops, including Madrid's Metropolitan Archbishop, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, and the coordinator of the World Youth Day 2011, Madrid Auxiliary Bishop César Franco Martínez, urged Pope Benedict XVI to name patrons for the event.

[9] Three months after the World Youth Day, the accountancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers released a report estimating that the economic impact of this event was about 354 million Euros in Spain.

[10] The theme for 2011′s World Youth Day is "Rooted and Built Up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith" (cf Col 2:7).

It was composed based on the WYD 2011 theme, "Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith," taken from St. Paul's letter to the Colossians.

On 17 August a demonstration against public funding of the World Youth Day and for a Spanish secular state took place in Madrid.