The annual Creation Festival will return to Huntingdon County Wednesday through Saturday, June 25-28. The festival, a musical salute to Christianity, will be held at its traditional spot at the Agape Farm in Shirley Township. Local officials report they are preparing the county to host the event, one of the largest music festivals in the nation.
\nAmong this year\u2019s entertainers are: Michael W. Smith, Toby Mac (front man for DC Talk), Sixpence None the Richer, O.C. Supertones, Tait, Rebecca St. James, Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline and many others.
\nThis year, Creation is marking its silver anniversary. Twenty-five years ago, the first pilgrimage of Christian rock-n-rollers came together to pay tribute to God through music and fellowship and this year they return, as they have every year since the initial Creation Festival. The hills of Huntingdon County will come to life as bands heralding Christian tomes flock to the hills, followed by thousands of devotees from across the U.S.
\nFestival attendance has broken the 50,000 mark over the past several years, holding claim as the nation\u2019s largest Christian music festival.
\nPam Prosser, executive director of the Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau, said the festival has a \u201cvery positive economic impact\u201d on the county.
\n\u201cThat week is generally one where we have difficulty finding places for people to stay \u2014 all of our accommodations are booked,\u201d she said, adding festival visitors also patronize other area businesses during their stay.
\nProsser noted the festival is a great source for potential tourists. For the past two years, the bureau has set up a display at Creation to distribute brochures and to meet with the crowds.
\n\u201cOur goal is to have the community treat these guests in a positive way, so they will come back,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want them to see what a nice area this is and to know the other opportunities in the county.\u201d
\nRichard Moore, director, Huntingdon County Emergency Management Agency, said initial meetings with local and state law enforcement have been called in preparation for the upcoming event.
\n\u201cAny time you have a large-scale event in these troubled times, there has to be concern,\u201d said Moore. \u201cWe are doing everything we can to make it safe.\u201d He said Creation organizers have worked well with local agencies and are \u201cvery cooperative.\u201d
\nIn additional to musical performances, the festival has brought together a number of motivational speakers and ministers to share their Christian visions. Among the scheduled speakers are Creation Festival co-founder Henry Thomas.
\nIn a festival release, Thomas said: \u201cWhen we started 25 years ago, it was our purpose to \u2018Give Tribute to Our Creator.\u2019 That purpose has not changed with the years or with the size of the crowd. We are expecting the Lord to be glorified and for the lives of all those attending to be touched by the Lord. God has great things in store for Creation 2003.\u201d
\nThe festival employs state of the art sound and lighting equipment. Delayed sound towers will enable every audience member, no matter how far he or she sits from the stage, to hear every song and every word.
\nThe festival will kick off Wednesday evening, June 25, and will conclude Saturday, June 28. A candlelighting service will be held Friday evening.
\nThe festival also includes an exhibition area, a supply store, workshops, prayer tent, water baptism and a children\u2019s ministry tent.
\nFor ticket information call 1-800-327-6921 or go to www.itickets.com\/creation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The annual Creation Festival will return to Huntingdon County Wednesday through Saturday, June 25-28. The festival, a musical salute to Christianity, will be held at its traditional spot at the Agape Farm in Shirley Township. Local officials report they are preparing the county to host the event, one of the largest music festivals in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}