Christian Music Festivals - in The United States

In The United States

In the early days of the Jesus People movement Christian events were sometimes held as part of secular music festivals. As the genre of Jesus music gained artists, its followers began to sponsor festivals, mimicking secular events such as Woodstock and Monterey Pop Festival. One of the first events, the Youth for Christ sponsored Faith Festival, was first held in 1970 in Evansville, Indiana. The event drew enough attention that the following year it garnered coverage by CBS and attracted about 15,000. Artists at the Faith Festival included Pat Boone, Gene Cotton, Danny Taylor, Crimson Bridge, and "e", a band which included Greg X. Volz. The attention that the Faith Festivals drew made them prototypes for future Christian music festivals.

Also in 1970, Asbury Theological Seminary professor Robert Lyon founded the Ichthus Music Festival, which is presently the longest running Christian music festival. The Hollywood Free Paper, a publication about the Jesus people movement, sponsored festivals in California and other areas of the United States. In 1971 the "Love Song Festival", sponsored by Maranatha! Music, was held at Knott's Berry Farm. Attendance was reported to be 20,000, a park record at the time, and artists included Love Song, The Way, Blessed Hope, and the Children of the Day. In late 1971 Christianity Today summarized four festivals that had taken place during the summer season. The same article described the artists who appeared at a Santa Barbara, California event, including Gentle Faith, Tom Howard, Ron Salsbury, The Bridge, and Randy Stonehill, as being "veterans of Jesus rock festivals."

1972 is seen as a pivotal year for Christian music festivals due to a crusade and evangelism training event called Explo '72, held in Dallas, Texas. Explo was sponsored by the World Conference on Missions and Campus Crusade for Christ. The week long event was attended by 80,000 registered attendees and concluded with a day long music festival. The attendance of the final event was reported by Life magazine at 150,000 and was characteristic by Billy Graham as a "religious Woodstock." The Explo '72 roster contained artists in a variety of genres including performers Larry Norman, Love Song, Andrae Crouch, and Johnny Cash. Explo '72 was a watershed event for the fledgling Jesus Music genre, and was the most visible event of the Jesus People movement. It is also the largest Christian music festival ever recorded; some critics even credit Explo with jump-starting the Christian music industry.

Early Christian music festivals were noted for their conservatism, often limiting their artistic expression to "safe, middle-of-the-road acts." The Jesus Festival, which was founded in 1973, offers a few illustrative incidents. In their inaugural year they hired a promoter, Tim Landis, who brought in acts such as 2nd Chapter of Acts, Pat Terry, and Phil Keaggy. The conservative owners, who wanted a family oriented music festival, found the music "a little too racy" and fired him. The following year at the same festival, Randy Matthews was chased off stage by a crowd which pronounced him to be demon or drug possessed due to his musical style and his announcement of an impending tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top. Matthews was later dropped from the tour roster.

The number and size of Christian music festivals continued to grow alongside the Christian music industry. By the mid 1970s festivals had appeared in all parts of the country. Tim Landis went on to found the Creation Festival in 1979, which was designed to appeal the youth, and has become one of the largest Christian festivals in the United States. For several years Creation was held at the same venue as the Jesus Festival, the Agape Farm, only a few weeks apart. More specialized festivals appeared to fill niche markets within the industry. The first completely rock music oriented festival was held in 1981. Called Illinois Jam, it featured artists including Barnabas, Servant, Randall Walter, and Randy Stonehill. Christian metal festivals also emerged, particularly in the late 1980s. One such festival was held in Carson, California in September 1987. The lineup was entirely Christian metal bands and included Guardian, Barren Cross, Vengeance Rising, and many smaller bands.

While the members of Jesus People USA had long been involved in Christian festivals around the country, the Chicago organization founded the Cornerstone Festival in 1984. Seeing the trend toward conservatism, Cornerstone was designed to set itself apart by being artistically unrestrictive. Its design came from the counter-culture of JPUSA itself, with an intent to appeal to an audience that may not have been attracted to more conservative forms of music. As Cornerstone magazine editor Jon Trott later characterized it: "Cornerstone would be to Jesus festivals what Seven Up was to cola: the unfestival." Their slogan in 1984 was "More Rock And Roll Than Anyone Has Dared"; Artists included Kerry Livgren, Resurrection Band, The Choir, Joe English, and the Sweet Comfort Band. Today Cornerstone is one of the premier Christian music festivals, and is most influential promoting groups on the fringe of Christian music.

In the 1990s the contemporary Christian music industry experienced explosive growth and saw the establishment of new festivals as well. The most significant of these are Purple Door and Tomfest, the latter of which regularly holds mini-festivals in diverse parts of the country. Since the turn of the century traveling tours such as Festival Con Dios and Shout Fest have appeared. They are often similar in structure to their secular counterparts such as Vans Warped Tour or Lolapalooza, offering extreme sports and a carnival-like atmosphere. Throughout the 2000s, the attendance at United States festivals grew significantly. According to one source, the number of Christian music festivals attended by more than 5000 youths grew from five in the year 2000 to 35 in 2006. As a result of this growth, many US festivals have formed a collective organization, the Christian Festival Association, to represent their interests.