| LifeLight Music Festival | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Free Family Friendly Christian Festival |
| Dates | Labor Day weekend |
| Location(s) | Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1998–2009) Worthing, South Dakota (2010–2019) Downtown, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (2023) |
| Years active | 1998–2019, 2023–Present |
| Founders | Alan and Vicki Greene |
| Website | LifeLight's Official website |
LifeLight Festival is an annual free outdoor Christian music festival held over Labor Day weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
LifeLight Festival [1] was started by Alan and Vicki Greene in 1998 as an afternoon concert at Good News Reformed Church on Valley View Rd, drawing about 2,000 people. By 2001, the festival was moved to the W.H. Lyons Fairgrounds in Sioux Falls to accommodate the growing crowds. In 2002, attendance tripled from the year before, growing to 32,000 attendees over a 3-day weekend. LifeLight has since grown to over 320,000 attendees over a 3-day weekend, expanding to 6 stages, with a budget of nearly $700,000 each year. After outgrowing previous locations, the LifeLight festival found a new permanent home for the Festival on a family farm near Worthing, South Dakota. The 2010 Festival was the first at the new location. [2] It is a free concert but provides a great economic boost to Sioux Falls. [3] Festivals like this one said to bring up to $10 Million. [2] Since 2005, LifeLight has also sponsored spring and fall tours featuring LifeLight artists. They started as local tours with primarily local artists but over the years, LifeLight Tours has partnered with several national and regional bands/speakers and now travel well beyond the Midwest for tour dates. Past tours have featured artists John Reuben, Brian Welch, Sanctus Real, Phil Joel, Disciple, Project 86, Children 18:3 and many more and traveled to cities in Texas, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota as well as other states. The 2013 festival in South Dakota hosted main showings of Plumb, Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, and Skillet. [4]
No festival was held in 2020-2022 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic
In 2023, the festival was held at the 8th & railroad district parking lot in downtown Sioux Falls. Despite temperatures of over 100 degrees, 30,000 people attended. In 2024 the festival is to be held at Nelson Park in eastern Sioux Falls to increase capacity.
Main Stage:
-Souled Out Stage:
A Life Echoed
Children 18:3
David Lunsford
DecembeRadio
Disciple
Downhere
Esterlyn (band)
Everyday Sunday
Everfound
Family Force 5
FM Static
House of Heroes
John Reuben
Krystal Meyers
Kutless
Life's Breath
Lincoln Brewster
Manic Drive
Michael Gungor Band
Nevertheless
Newsboys
Remedy Drive
Run Kid Run
Rush of Fools
Sanctus Real
Sarah Reeves
Seventh Day Slumber
Showbread
Silverline
Spoken
Stellar Kart
Superchick
Thousand Foot Krutch
Tenth Avenue North
The Switch Kids
The Wedding
TruEmotion
VOTA
WILLET
Headliners of the 2008 festival, as announced on Life 96.5, were Switchfoot, Michael W. Smith and Casting Crowns. Other 2008 participating bands included:
33Miles
Ayiesha Woods
As I Lay Dying
Building 429
Day of Fire
Everyday Sunday
Family Force 5
Grits
John Reuben
Leeland
Lincoln Brewster
Matthew West
MxPx
Natalie Grant
Phil Joel
Remedy Drive
Sanctus Real
Seventh Day Slumber
Showbread The Afters
This Beautiful Republic
VOTA
Jars of Clay, TobyMac and Chris Tomlin were announced as the headliners of the 2007 festival. [7] Other major bands and artists for 2007 included: [8]
Anberlin
BarlowGirl
Big Daddy Weave
Casting Pearls
Family Force 5
Leeland
Tait
Phil Joel
Project 86
Stellar Kart
Audio Adrenaline
Casting Crowns
Day of Fire
Dr. James Dobson
FFH
GoFish
Jeremy Camp
Mark Schultz
Newsboys
Pillar
Point of Grace
Rebecca St. James
Relient K
Rick Warren
Salvador
Sanctus Real
Skillet
Steven Curtis Chapman
Superchick
Switchfoot
Third Day
Thousand Foot Krutch
Three Cord Wonder
Tree63
Newsboys are a Christian rock band founded in 1985 in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia, by Peter Furler and George Perdikis. Now based in Nashville, Tennessee, the band has released 17 studio albums, 6 of which have been certified gold. As of 2023, the band consists of lead vocalist Michael Tait, drummer and percussionist Duncan Phillips, keyboardist Jeff Frankenstein, electric guitarist Jody Davis, and bassist Adam Agee ; no founding members are featured in the lineup. In addition to performing music, the band has appeared in the films God's Not Dead, God's Not Dead 2, and God's Not Dead: A Light In Darkness.
Audio Adrenaline was an American Christian rock band that formed in 1986 at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky. The band gained recognition during the 1990s and received two Grammy Awards and multiple Dove Awards. Audio Adrenaline were regular performers at the annual Creation Festival, Spirit West Coast festival, Agape Music Festival, and Alive Festival. In 2007, the group disbanded due to lead singer Mark Stuart's spasmodic dysphonia. During this time, they released eight studio albums.
Skillet is an American Christian rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1996. The band currently consists of husband and wife duo John Cooper and Korey Cooper along with Jen Ledger and Seth Morrison. The band has released eleven studio albums, two of which, Collide and Comatose, received Grammy nominations. Two of their albums, Comatose and Awake, are certified Platinum and Double Platinum respectively by the RIAA, while Rise and Unleashed are certified Gold as of June 29, 2020. Four of their songs, "Monster", "Hero", "Awake and Alive", and "Feel Invincible", are certified Multi-Platinum, while another three, "Whispers in the Dark", "Comatose", and "The Resistance" are certified Platinum, and another five, "Rebirthing", "Not Gonna Die", "The Last Night", "Legendary", and "Stars" are certified Gold.
Parachute Music Festival was a Christian music festival held annually in New Zealand between 1992 - 2014. Originally starting in Waikanae, the event moved to Matamata in 1995, and then finally to Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand where it was held from 2004 - 2014. The three-day festival was run by Parachute Music, and ran annually in late January, on the weekend before Auckland Anniversary Day. The event 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.
Kutless is an American Christian rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 1999. Since their formation, they have released multiple studio albums and one live album, Live from Portland. They have sold over 3 million records worldwide.
AgapeFest, formerly known as Agape Music Festival, was an annual, Christian music festival in Greenville, Illinois. It featured many Christian musicians and some of the day'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. 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.
Stellar Kart was an American pop punk band from Phoenix, Arizona, signed to Inpop Records and Capitol Records. The band released their first album, All Gas. No Brake, in February 2005. Most of their singles have been accepted exclusively on Christian radio stations such as Air 1. Their song "Me and Jesus" from their 2006 album We Can't Stand Sitting Down hit No. 1 for seven weeks on the Hot Christian Songs chart and won the 2007 Dove Award for "Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song". Their song "Something Holy" from their 2010 album Everything Is Different Now, an album which adopts a more "worshipful" flavor charted at No. 23 on Billboard Magazine for eighteen weeks. Their latest full-length album, All In, was released on August 27, 2013.
Kiros was a Canadian rock and punk band formed in 2002 in Calgary.
Lifest 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 largest Christian music festivals in America.
The 35th Annual GMA Music Awards were held on April 28, 2004 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2003. The show was held at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Deion Sanders and Yolanda Adams.
Alive Festival, located in Mineral City, Ohio, is an annual Christian music festival. It features many Christian musicians and popular Christian bands, as well as several Christian speakers and worship leaders. The festival began in 1988 and celebrated its 20th anniversary June 20–23, 2007.
VOTA is a Christian rock band from Lincoln, Nebraska, featuring Bryan Olesen, a former guitarist with Christian rock band Newsboys. Several of the band's songs have been featured on rotation with national radio networks such as K-Love, and are part of the international 180 Tour. Their song "Hard to Believe" was listed at No. 17 on R&R magazine's May 2, 2009, weekly chart for the United States.
The 39th Annual GMA Dove Awards presentation was held on April 23, 2008, recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2007. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee.
Manic Drive is a Canadian Christian rock band, formed in 2004 by the brothers Michael and Shawn Cavallo. After receiving interest from a record label, they released Reason for Motion in May 2005. The band has released albums including Reset and Rewind (2007), Blue (2009), Epic (2011), VIP (2014), Into the Wild (2017) and Vol. 1 (2020).
The World Pulse Festival is a Christian contemporary music festival in South Bend, Indiana. The World Pulse Festival was started by LeSEA Broadcasting Corp. in 1986 as a birthday celebration for radio station WHME. It is held on WHME grounds in South Bend, Indiana, except in 2014, when it was moved to the Compton Family Ice Arena at Notre Dame. In 2017 the Pulse Festival started the "Pulse Summer Series" that spread out a concert each month during the season. Its attendance numbers have ranged between 40,000 and 60,000 attendees, making it one of the largest Christian music festivals in the Midwest.
The 40th Annual GMA Dove Awards presentation was held on April 23, 2009 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2008. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Rebecca St. James, Matthew West, and Lisa Kimmey.
LifeLight Communications is a non-profit ministry based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota dedicated to taking the church outside of the walls through tours & concerts, student ministries, missions, radio, outreach events and festivals. The best known aspect of their ministry is the LifeLight Music Festival, a free, annual Christian Music Festival held over Labor Day weekend in Worthing, South Dakota.
The 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.
HeavenFest 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.