Heaven Fest 2009

Our family LOVES to go to concerts. I wasn't sure how many opportunities there would be in CO and after having lived within driving distance of LA, where there are a multitude of venues for music and theatre, I was a little unsure of what we would find in the way of entertainment here in the rocky mountains (aside from all of that healthy, exercise-ridden stuff). Sometimes, a girl just wants to be entertained!

You can imagine how excited I was when I discovered Heaven Fest. I was listening to Way FM, which is an awesome Christian radio station and heard an announcement regarding the music festival coming to Denver in August. I immediately added Heaven Fest as a friend on Facebook and started getting updates. The prices were $29 or whatever you can afford (how cool is that?) and they had 80 bands on 8 stages. The girls were going to be with their mom, so I ordered two tickets for Jay and I and we waited with anticipation from the time we got to CO until the day of the concert. This was going to be our first show after the move and definitel one to remember!

The day started off right. We stopped at It's a Grind (our absolute favorite coffee shop) for a cup of joe and bagel and traffic was light up until we arrived a few miles from the venue and then we were at a dead stop. We had a couple of miles to go and by the rate of speed we were driving (zero) it didn't look like we were going to make it in time to see the first band on our list, which was Seventh Day Slumber. We saw some cars turning off on a separate road and watched this for about 20 minutes and finally took a chance and followed them. This turned out to be a very good decision. We were able to bypass a lot of the traffic and got checked in and dropped off our canned food (they asked everyone to bring a can of food for the food bank) and got our wrist bands and made it to the stage with only a few minutes to spare.

Seventh Day Slumber was amazing! This was our second time seeing them and hearing Joseph's testimony will bring you to tears (and to your knees.) He speaks with so much passion and you can just hear the love in his voice that he has for Jesus and for others. He is such an example of God's deliverance. The music was awesome also. They have such talent.

Next, we saw Kutless. This was our third time seeing them and they did not disappoint. They played several of their rock songs and were all over the stage. We could not help but sing along and enjoy the energy in the crowd.

After Kutless, Skillet came on the stage. This was my third time seeing Skillet, and Jay's second. I actually took Jay to see Skillet on our third date. We went to the House of Blues in Hollywood and saw Twelve Stones, Pillar, Skillet, and some other band that neither of us can remember the name of. Anyhoo, Skillet rocked! Actually, in the words of John Cooper, they "rocked our faces off." They played a song off of their new album called Monster and the crowd went wild. They incorporate all kinds of string instruments along with the guitar, drums and keyboard and have such a unique sound. The day just kept getting better.

Admittedly, it was hot....very hot. It was dusty.....very dusty. We were on our feet the entire day, there was no shade and porta potties are well, porta potties. Still, it was worth it and we would do it again all over again.

We wrapped up the day with Third Day. They came on late and we were all standing around wondering if technical difficulties were the hold up. After about 20 minutes, the announcer came on the mic and told us that what we could not see behind the stage was some very dark clouds and some very large lightning strikes and if we wanted to see Third Day, then we needed to pray. So, everyone started praying and Third Day was able to come on an deliver and amazing performance. I was especially excited to see them because it was my first time and they were absolutely incredible. Mac has the most beautiful voice and when they sang, "Thief" everyone was just silent and humbled. It was truly amazing.

At 8:30, all of the music stopped and they had a nameless, faceless worship team come up to the stage and lead us in worship and read scripture and then we all took communion together (among 20,000) people. That was an experience that, unfortunately, I cannot put into words. God's presence was so powerful and you could just feel His love cover us. It was an absolutely amazing day.

Seventh Day Slumber

Just us

Seventh Day Slumber

That's John Micah from Kutless hiking up the laddar

A little tired, a little sunburned, a little thirsty and a lot happy

The skate ramp

Another one of the stages

This is why you need to sponsor a child with Compassion International

Just a tad dusty

It was fun taking a shower that night!

Throw up your rock fist!

Third Day

A peak at the sky - not a drop of rain!