Christian Music Online

Creation Festival goes on tour

November 3, 2008 – 2:31 pm

Fans of the Creation Festival won’t have to wait until next summer to experience a local Christian music concert with nationally known artists.

The organizers behind Creation, the nation’s largest Christian music festival held each year in Shirleysburg, will bring a ” mini Creation on wheels ” to McConnellstown, Huntingdon County.

Creation Festival: The Tour will kick off at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Oasis of Love Church, 10991 Station Road, with performances by Esterlyn and Capital Lights and special youth speaker Bob Lenz.

The evening lineup features nine contemporary Christian rock bands, including headliners Kutless and special guests Thousand Foot Krutch and Pillar. Fireflight, Run Kid Run and Worth Dying For also are scheduled to perform.

The tour is part of a 30-city schedule that includes Austin, Texas, and Rochester, N.Y.

Shippensburg-based concert promoter Scott Brown, who is friends with Oasis of Love church leaders, secured the church as the local venue.

The church’s multipurpose room seats 200 with additional standing-room space for 800 to 900 more.

”It didn’t take too long to consider doing it,” said Art Speck, assistant pastor. ”There’s all kinds of pluses to this.

“We’re looking at it as a community outreach and hoping to get kids in our door that wouldn’t normally be in a church or looking into Christian music,” Speck said. “They can be ministered to, and lives can be changed through this.”

Speck expects the mainstream-style rock music to attract mainly teens and young adults.

”It’s an awesome opportunity for people in this area because this is a big-city tour,” he said. ”Usually, we would travel to State College, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia to see something like this, and now it’s right here in rural central Pennsylvania.”

The Creation Tour’s ”It Starts With You” campaign will be accepting donations of canned food or boxed meals as a way to give back to the local community.

Donations will be given to the Food For Families Food Bank and the Altoona Food Bank, both in Blair County.

Sister Paula DelGrosso, director of the Food For Families soup kitchen, said donations will help fill boxes for local families for Thanksgiving and Christmas and add to area food bank stockrooms.

”Our need has gone up 20 percent in the last four months,” she said. ”There’s a lot of people who don’t have much at all. Some have lost their jobs, and those holding on to their jobs are struggling to make ends meet. Whatever we can give them is a wonderful help.”

Mirror Staff Writer Cori Bolger can be reached at 946-7458.

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