Many years ago, The Hubby and I joined thousands of people in a cornfield on the outskirts on Sioux Falls, South Dakota for a free Christian music festival featuring some of my favorite singers and bands. It was a super fun weekend and we went back a couple of years in a row, bringing friends with us to experience the awesomeness.
It had been eight years since I last attended LifeLight. Kids and work and school had prevented us from attending and I was itching to go back, especially after hearing my current favorite band, For King and Country, would be there!
The Hubby had to work over Labor Day weekend, so the kids and I headed up to stay with my parents and get our groove on at LifeLight!
LifeLight is a three-day is a Christian music festival that has now moved out to a permanent location in the country near Sioux Falls. It is always Labor Day weekend, always free, and always amazing. Hundreds of thousands of people attend over those three days – it’s really incredible event to be a part of!
We were going to go out two of the nights, but Saturday’s heat made it a little too unbearable, especially for the younger ones. We decided to just go out Sunday night, and stayed home to watch the Huskers pull out a way-too-close win instead. It also stormed later that night, so I’m glad we were all tucked in at home!
Sunday was the day Big J and I really cared about attending anyway, with For King and Country and Newsboys on stage! The younger two stayed home and we went with my best friend from home to enjoy an evening of AMAZING concerts.
Here are a few pictures from our super fun time…
Big J is a HUGE KLOVE fan, so meeting JD Chandler, one of the on-air guys, was super cool for him! And they gave him a fun little radio which he has carried around ever since! I bought him the bracelet as a little reminder of our special evening together!
Perfect bag to take out the festival. Love my FreeSet bags!
For King and Country was who I went to LifeLight to see and They. Were. INCREDIBLE. They really put on quite a show, especially with a wide variety of percussion. I love their heart for seeing women treated as priceless, not as objects or worthless. That was a really moving moment for me. Oh yeah, and they sang my favorite prayer right now. Just perfect.
My friend came armed with homemade cookies for the whole group we were sitting with. I wanted to eat the whole bag, but we had already indulged in “the unhealthiest dinner ever,” according to Big J, so I restrained myself…a little.
This boy was SO excited for the Newsboys he could hardly stand it. And we had to wait a while for them to start, but it was totally worth it to be upfront when they came on stage…
We had put out a Twitter plea for the to perform The League of Incredible Vegetables theme song, but no such luck. Big J was in total awe of Duncan Phillips, the drummer, the whole time. I think his eyes were glued there. And then the drum platform started spinning while he was playing and Big J’s mind was totally blown. It was pretty darn cool. And so was hearing a bunch of favorites along with lots of new goodies from their upcoming album, Restart!
We also got to meet the guys from We Are Leo, a band I just discovered because of LifeLight and Twitter! I checked them out on YouTube and loved all of the songs I heard, and so did the kids! I immediately wanted to add several of the songs to my running playlist! They were so nice and gave us a couple of autographed CDs to give away to you!
If you are anywhere near Sioux Falls next Labor Day, you need to make your way to LifeLight. And it really is a family event, so bring everybody! It is full of worship and fun and great memories. You can even camp out there! Maybe we’ll see you there!
By the way, the best part of LifeLight? A night alone with my favorite seven-year-old who is starting to love Christian music just as much as I do! It was a really special date for us and I enjoyed every moment: signing, eating, looking around, and lots of snuggling! It was just what we needed.
I’ve never been to a Christian music festival, but we take the youth group from our church to a gathering called Resurrection each year that usually has great music.
I was at Lifelight this year also! I had actually went to be a part of Building 429’s street team which consisted of going around selling there cd’s and glow tubes and then helping out with there set. I also wanted to see For King and Country and We Are Leo. I had heard The Proof of Your Love and enjoyed it so I thought I would listen to their other songs and I ended falling in love with their music. After their set I went to go meet Joel and he was like one of the nicest people I have ever met. I had also only heard one of We Are Leo’s songs, Supernova Sunrise. Saturday afternoon when my friend and I had a break from selling things, we went to their merch table and David and Jonny were there and they introduced themselves to us and asked if we were coming to listen to them on Sunday and we said we were and then Sunday after their set we went to go get a t-shirt and David recognized us which was pretty cool.
I haven’t heard of Lifelight or We are Leo. Looking forward to checking them out!
I haven’t been but it looks like so much fun!
I have this feeling that I once attended something but I can’t really remember it so I must not have. It would have been back in jr high or high school though. I remember Creation being a big deal and I always wanted to go but we never did. In college I did get to see a Third Day concert in a church gym when they were brand new, that’s a nice memory. I may have heard We Are Leo song on the radio but I couldn’t tell you which one it is. I’ll have to look them up.
Glad you had so much fun with your boy. Question, how does your 5yr old respond when you just take 7yr old with you? My 7yr old is ok if I just take 5yr old but the other way around doesn’t go over well.