Julia Remp and her two sons packed up her automobile and traveled final summer season from Montana to the Alive Music Pageant in Ohio.
A tent and tenting gear have been loaded up. So was a cooler. However it was the 46-year-old single mom’s first time tenting simply along with her boys, and it did not go nicely.
Meals spoiled and tenting was a borderline catastrophe.
Remp, nevertheless, did not let it damage her expertise on the annual Christian music occasion at Atwood Lake Park on the boundaries of Carroll and Tuscarawas counties within the Mineral Metropolis space.
“The entire occasion is superb,” she stated. “We met so many great, caring, nonjudgmental, loving individuals. The second we bought into the road to (wait to) get in, we felt the love. Everybody who we encountered, staff and attendees, have been so pleasant and useful.”
Remp is amongst hundreds who’re making their method to this week’s competition, which runs Thursday by Sunday, with greater than a dozen bands and musical artists. Arduous rock, pop, hip-hop, rap and worship genres amongst them.
“We’re past excited to be attending once more this yr,” she wrote in an e mail earlier this week. “And I can’t wait to see what God has in retailer for us this yr.”
Nighttime headliners are: TobyMac Thursday; Skillet Friday; for King & Nation Saturday; and We The Kingdom on Sunday. Different acts embody Danny Gokey on Thursday; We Are Messengers and Andy Mineo Friday; Britt Nicole, KB, Riley Clemmons and TAYA Saturday; and Tauren Wells and Journey Lee on Sunday.
For a whole record of performers and different info, go to https://www.alive.org/.
Extra:We The Kingdom enjoying Alive Pageant with Skillet, TobyMac and Switchfoot
Extra:Alive Music Pageant an inspiring household affair for a lot of Christian music followers
After 35 years, Invoice Graening, who oversees the competition together with his spouse, Kathy, stated he nonetheless will get excited.
“There’s one thing about tenting and being collectively exterior … underneath the celebs with the large stage and the music … and the fellowship and all of the people who find themselves there,” stated Graening, competition director. “The anticipation continues to be at all times there.”
Worshipping with hundreds of Christians is ‘finest feeling ever’
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Longtime attendees and newbies present up yearly, Graening stated.
Followers journey from throughout the nation and even abroad, he stated. Crowds common 12,000 to fifteen,000 every day, with peak attendance between 7 and 10 p.m.
Final summer season, Remp of Billings, Montana, discovered pleasure and camaraderie within the music and fellowship. And following her tenting miscues, she was bolstered and uplifted by her fellow concertgoers who expressed each help and encouragement by social media.
“Lots of the individuals instructed me we might have come by … and (they) would have fed us and brought care of us,” Remp wrote in an e mail. “This was superb for them to supply.”
And he or she’s again this yr along with her 16 and 12-year-old sons. She’s a yr wiser by way of tenting, however she’s no much less enthused in regards to the total fusion of worship, individuals and track.
“We get to be so far-off from house with like-minded individuals,” stated Remp, a particular wants assistant at an elementary college. “We get to worship with hundreds of different Christians, and that to me is the perfect feeling ever. It’s not simply at some point — it is 5 days of worship collectively.”
Kimberlie Bossone, 42, of Cleveland, is attending her first Alive Music Pageant.
“I’ve simply given my life fully to God, and have become Christian again in November,” she stated.
A longtime music lover, the house well being nurse stated she used to attend “very worldly music festivals, with nothing however sin, considering it was the best time ever.
“I now understand how incorrect a life I used to be main,” Bossone stated in an e mail. “God has such an incredible method of constructing all issues new, and for His good. His method!”
‘The start was very modest.’
The competition was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
“That was robust for all of us … and we misplaced some very shut mates,” Invoice Graening stated of the virus.
“We have had lots of people who simply stated we won’t watch for this factor to relaunch,” he recalled of the buildup for final summer season’s occasion. “And to only have the ability to be again collectively.”
Graening has seen the occasion develop and alter over the many years.
Expertise has developed with digital ticketing, social media and the way in which through which individuals hearken to music.
“We’re seeing, I assume, the automation of issues,” he stated. “We used to print and mail so much, and we do not mail that a lot anymore. We do not mail wristbands, (and) we scan telephones (for tickets) and provides (followers) wristbands. We do not promote tickets on the occasion. Individuals purchase them (on-line) and are available, or they purchase them from their automobiles on telephones.”
Launching the competition within the late ’80s, Graening admits he had so much to be taught.
“The start was very modest,” he stated. “We had no thought what we have been doing. We have been bringing in bands we did not know so much about.”
“If Kathy and I knew what we have been stepping into once we have been younger, we could have been scared to do it.”
Life was hectic for the Stark County couple. Reserving acts, promoting the competition, attracting sponsors, determining logistics and promoting tickets, all whereas elevating 4 kids at their Canal Fulton house.
Invoice Graening, a former member of a Christian band, would ultimately go away his job as a belief officer at a financial institution to dedicate his energies to the Alive Pageant full-time.
Kathy was simply as busy, jugging motherhood with competition duties at their house workplace
“To take a ticket order, she would slide off right into a closet or quiet room to take a cellphone name,” Invoice recalled with laughter.
The couple now lives in Jackson Township, and their kids are adults, together with son Tyler, who’s on the competition workers. Their different children assist out, too. And competition headquarters are nonetheless primarily based at house.
Occasion adjustments have included a special configuration and structure of {the marketplace}, the place exhibitors and distributors arrange in tents, together with to promote clothes and Christian-inspired jewellery. Non-profit teams additionally attend.
Video screens close to the stage have gotten bigger. Audio has improved.
Graening stated he is thrilled to be holding the occasion at Atwood Lake Park for the twelfth yr; he complimented the tenting and RV websites and facilities, together with the seashore, welcome middle, and toilet and bathe services.
Clay’s Park had been a great match, too, he stated, however Atwood Lake provided extra choices, together with boating.
Alive Music Pageant plans to stay at Atwood Lake long-term, Graening stated; the present settlement extends by 2025.
Graening calls the competition “generational.”
“Individuals who got here within the early years now are bringing their households,” he stated. “Now we have some diehard followers who’ve been coming since ’88 and ’90.”
New attendees proceed to find the competition, nevertheless.
Tina Fronheiser, 54, of Studying, Pennsylvania, is wanting ahead to expecting King & Nation.
Following COVID-related restrictions, attending music festivals is invigorating whereas restoring a way of normalcy, she stated.
Now she travels to Florida and different locations for music festivals as a result of the expertise lifts her spirits. Holidays are scheduled across the occasions.
“As a nurse, I’ve needed to distance myself from life for 2 years, and attending these festivals is therapeutic,” Fronheiser stated.
Graening additionally praised the roughly 400 volunteers who assist with the occasion, which he stated has been household owned and operated since 1990. Some volunteer mangers have been concerned with the competition for round 30 years.
“Now we’re seeing millennials and Gen Z people serving to us,” he famous.
Household-friendly competition with ‘lyrically protected’ music
Musical tendencies have come and gone. And the competition circuit has grown. However the spirit of Alive is unaltered, Graening stated.
“We had some years the place the style of music was altering a little bit … and there have been extra occasions coming,” he stated. “We weren’t the one Christian music occasion, so there was a time frame (the place attendance decreased).
“It by no means dipped extremely dangerous … however we’re seeing a surge again, which actually began final yr,” Graening defined. “We have seen an actual surge in individuals eager to go to occasions … and hearken to music that honors God.”
The occasion stays “family-oriented” with “lyrically protected” music,” he stated. Alcohol is not offered.
“There’s nothing in opposition to the opposite occasions and what they do,” Graening stated. “However (the Alive Music Pageant) is an choice.”
Attain Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com
On Twitter @ebalintREP
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