Christian Music Online

Peace & music Christian festival

July 2, 2005 – 12:05 pm

Peace & music Christian festival draws tens of thousands

SHIRLEYSBURG, Huntingdon County –There was plenty of peace, fellowship and music at Creation ‘05.

Touted as the largest Christian music festival in the country, the 27th annual festival packed in a record number of music lovers this year. The unofficial word from staff was that there were 85,000 people in attendance Wednesday, the first day of this year’s event. Festivities continue through Saturday.

“We’re up 15 percent from opening day last year,” press coordinator Anita Crawford said Thursday.

Last year, 60,000 people showed up on the first day. Those figures, though, do not include single-day sales or any latecomers who showed up but didn’t stay for the entire festival.

“Last night was the biggest Wednesday opening night,” press coordinator Adrian Martinez said. “It’s literally camp city.”

Martinez, who has attended Creation Fest for the past 11 years, said this year’s festival features two additional tents for vendors, an Internet café, dozens of speakers, prayer tents and fireworks.

“Good speakers, good bands, good food and good people” is what it’s all about, said Sam Hartman, youth pastor of the Righteous Outreach of Christ Kids, a State College-based program.

Despite the hot weather, festival participants lined up for hours to get front-row spots for some of their favorite performers, including Switchfoot, Relient K, Barlow Girls, TobyMac and Michael W. Smith. Some people were even lined up at 5 a.m. Thursday to get a prime spot in the front, said James Schomer, vice president and treasurer of WRXV “Rev FM” in State College.

While the music is cited as the primary reason for the continued success of Creation Fest, some people attend the event to further religious tradition.

Dana Landin attended Creation Fest in 1994, and this year he decided to drive 12 hours from his home in Algonquin, Ill., to camp out and hear some of his favorite bands with his children.

“I was a youth pastor then. Now I brought my kids. I guess they’re my youth group,” Landin said as he scanned a Steven Curtis Chapman CD at the festival gift shop. “It’s good for my kids to see thousands of other teens worshipping God and being into Christian music.”

Shane Smith, youth pastor at the Calvary Community Church of the Nazarene in Rochester, N.Y., agreed.

The festival “helps people see that they’re not alone. To see that there are other people looking for God. It’s a sense of community.”
By Ivonne D’Amato
idamato@centredaily.com

---

---