WA Christian music festival is a music festival held by the Christian community, in support of performers of Christian music. The festivals are characterized by more than just music; many feature motivational speakers and evangelists, and include seminars on Christian spiritual and missions topics, service, and evangelism. They are often viewed as evangelical tools, and small festivals can draw 10 times the crowd of traditional revival meetings. While the central theme of a Christian festival is Jesus Christ, the core appeal of a Christian music festival remains the artists and their music. Critics point out that the dichotomy of business and religious interests can be problematic for Christian festivals. In similar ways as the Christian music industry in general, festivals can be drawn away from their central theme and gravitate toward commercialization and mainstream acts in an attempt to draw crowds.
WA list of Christian music festivals around the world. A Christian music festival is a festival oriented towards genres of Christian music, such as gospel music, church music, liturgical music, or contemporary Christian music such as Christian pop and Christian rock. Festivals are held worldwide, and in North America many are overseen by organizations such as the Christian Festival Association.
WAgapeFest, formerly known as Agape Music Festival, was an annual, Christian music festival in Greenville, Illinois. It featured many Christian musicians and some of today's top Christian bands. The festival was sponsored by nearby Greenville College and had been student-run since its inception in 1977. AgapeFest was generally held the last weekend in April or first weekend in May, and bands performed from early afternoon Friday until late evening on Saturday. They offered free camping and free parking to attendees. Unfortunately, the festival culminated after 2013's event. Greenville College was unable provide funding for AgapeFest in 2014, and that year's planned festival was not hosted. AgapeFest has not been hosted since and currently has no plans to return as a two-day festival. However, Greenville College hosted Encore Music festival in its place in 2014 and currently brings events such as Propaganda (musician), Noah Gundersen, and the Nashville Contemporary Music Center's Holotour to campus.
WEasterfest was an annual three-day music festival held in Toowoomba, Australia.
WThe Big Church Day Out, also known as BCDO, is a Christian non-profit music festival that takes place in Wiston, West Sussex, England, best known for its contemporary Christian music. Many musical types are represented at the festival with the festival to appeal to all denominations of Christians. The main musical genres featured are Christian rock, contemporary worship music, gospel and Christian rap.
WCornerstone Festival was a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA and held annually around July 4 near Bushnell, Illinois, drawing some 20,000 attendees each year. In a given year, many artists that played at Cornerstone also played at other events such as Creation Festival and mainstream festivals and tours such as the Warped Tour. The final festival was held in 2012.
WCreation Festival consists of two annual, four-day Christian music festivals held in the United States, called Creation Northeast and Creation Northwest. According to its organizers, the festivals have become the "Nation's Largest Christian Music Festival." Average attendance is between 50,000 and 100,000 annually.
WEasterfest was an annual three-day music festival held in Toowoomba, Australia.
WGreenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown out of an evangelical Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young people into its current form, a more inclusive festival attended at its peak around 2010 by around 20,000, including Christians and those from other faiths.
WHeavenFest was an annual Christian music festival attracting tens of thousands of people each summer. The festival was held in multiple cities over the years along the Front Range of Colorado.
WThe Ichthus Festival is a Christian music festival in Wilmore, Kentucky. Held 44 times from 1970 to 2015, the event was originally a Christian-music answer to Woodstock but developed into both the longest-running Christian music festival and a Christian ministry serving tens of thousands of attendees annually. With financial difficulties in the 2010s, the festival left Wilmore after 2012 and put on one last event in 2015 at the Kentucky Horse Park in nearby Lexington, Kentucky. In 2021, the festival was revived in Wilmore.
WKingdom Bound is an annual Christian music festival held at Darien Lake Theme Park Resort near Buffalo, New York. The festival takes place over a span of four days and has hosted a variety of Christian speakers and artists since the late 1980s.
WLifest is an annual Christian music festival that takes place in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at the Sunnyview Expo Center. Lifest has the slogan "A Party with a Purpose." It is one of the nation's largest Christian music festivals.
WMaata Näkyvissä Festival is the biggest Christian music event in the Nordic Countries. It takes place in Turku, Finland, the venue being HK Arena and the Turku Fair Centre. The organizers of the event are the Lutheran Evangelical Association of Finland and the Evangelical Lutheran parishes of Turku. In 2010 the event was organized for the 26th time. The festival lasts from Friday to Sunday, and takes place in the latter half of November every year. There are about 1300 volunteers helping in the arrangements.
WNight of Joy was an annual contemporary Christian music festival that took place from 1983 to 2017 at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The festival was normally hosted at the Magic Kingdom in early September. It was cancelled in 2018 and replaced with a mainstream Eat to the Beat concert series, with Christian pop rock artists MercyMe and Tauren Wells joining the lineup. Night of Joy inspired two other Christian rock festivals in the Orlando region: Cornerstone Florida, which ran in the month of May from 2003 to 2007, and Rock the Universe at Universal Studios Florida, in operation since 1998.
WOlavsfestdagene is a church and cultural festival held in Trondheim around Olsok every year.
WThe Parachute Music Festival was a Christian music festival held annually in various venues in New Zealand between 1992 - 2014 with the event being held at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand from 2004. It was previously held at Totara Springs in Matamata and El Rancho, Waikanae The festival was run by Parachute Music and usually lasted for three nights and four days. It was held the weekend before Auckland Anniversary Day, in late January. 'Parachute' was one of the largest Christian music festivals outside of the United States and it was one of the largest multi-day festivals in the Southern Hemisphere. As well as musicians, it also featured guest speakers.
WThe Rock of Ages Festival is a Christian music festival held every October in Calistoga, California, United States. It was established in 1999 and has grown to become one of Northern California's biggest rock festivals. The Rock of Ages Festival presents speakers and music on four stages ranging in style from rock, rap, and Reggae to punk, big band, Latino, and more. The festival also presents workshops on subjects from marriage and relationships, to creation science and local ministry.
WRock the Universe is an annual Christian rock festival that takes place at Universal Studios Florida. It started in 1998, and it used to take place in September. Since 2019, the festival is celebrated on the first weekend of February.
WThe Scream the Prayer Tour, also known as Scream the Prayer, or simply STP, was an American Christian metalcore/hardcore music worship tour, presented by INRI Clothing. The tour had been held annually since it began, in mid-2008. In 2013 promoters decided it would be the final tour due to low ticket sales and lack of audience.
WSpirit West Coast (SWC) is a Christian music festival that features Christian artists from several different genres. It also features lectures, workshops in tents, kids' shows, petting zoos, and comedians.
WSteve Thurston is a Chilean-American journalist, entrepreneur, humanitarian photographer and co-founder, CEO and president of Integrity Ministries, a non-profit media organization.
WUnity Christian Music Festival (Unity) is a four-day Christian music festival held annually during the month of August at Heritage Landing in Muskegon, Michigan.
WThe Wild Goose Festival is an art, music, and story-driven festival grounded in faith-inspired social justice. The nationwide annual July event is attended by nearly 5000 in Hot Springs, NC. There are also some regional events. It encourages co-creation of music, story, theater, and spectacle, and engagement in a wide variety of robust, respectful conversations with participants and with thought leaders and artists from other communities. Wild Goose is welcoming and hospitable to people of all faiths – or no faith – who join in seeking the common good. It fully affirms and celebrates people of every age, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual identity, education, bodily condition, religious affiliation, and economic background, particularly those who are most often marginalized.
WYC Newfoundland is a Christian Youth Conference in Newfoundland, Canada, which has been hosted in Corner Brook, St. John's, and Gander in different years.
WYouth of the Nation was an annual Christian Youth Conference held for 15 years in Wanganui, New Zealand. Unlike many other Christian conferences, YOTN was not held by one specific church or denomination. Youth of the Nation conferences and events were hosted by The Youth Of The Nation Trust in collaboration with other churches from around New Zealand. For the first 8 years the conferences were hosted by the Wanganui Christian Youth Workers collective, a group of Christian youth pastors & workers from different denominations & churches across the city of Wanganui. This collective included representatives from Anglican, Apostolic, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Open Brethren, Catholic, Incedo, Presbyterian, Christian Outreach Centre—now known as International Network of Churches—, Elim, Salvation Army, & non-denominational. From 2012 until 2018, the YOTN Trust partnered with churches, not only in Wanganui, but from across New Zealand to host events in different cities.