Cornerstone, R.I.P.

I was scheduled to speak at the Cornerstone Music Festival again this summer, but a few days ago I received a message from the organizers that things were changing.  Cornerstone is broke and can no longer put on the festival.  So they're trying to organize some sort of farewell party this summer, but it will not be the regular festival, and it will be the last hurrah.  They are closing their doors forever.  Here is the official message from their website.

This is very sad.  For whatever reason, the festival just hasn't drawn the number of paying customers that it needed to.  The last few years they've gotten into a bad cycle of inviting fewer of the big time mainstream bands, because they couldn't afford the cost; that led to fewer people coming and so there was less money for the next year.  Cornerstone has always been the coolest of the Christian music festivals, being run by Jesus People USA and catering to the underground, independent, edgier market.  Evidently that sort of thing is not sustainable in the long run.

Cornerstone has been an important part of our family's experience.  I started going during my college years when it was still held at the fairgrounds in Grayslake, IL.  That's where I came to appreciate bands like Daniel Amos, the Choir, One Bad Pig, Adam Again, and similar.  Then we started taking our family to the campground in Bushnell, IL in the year 2000 when our youngest was still in diapers.  That year there were torrential rains and shoe-sucking mud.  We ate something at our campsite that made us all vomit.  But we were hooked.  We've gone as a family almost every year since then, and I think it has been an important cultural experience for our kids growing up.  And for most of those trips, we've brought other people along with us--cousins, friends, etc. And it was always nice to run into other people from the college at the festival. Much of our extended family thought we were a little crazy for doing this every year and making sure the rest of the summer schedule revolved around it.  But it really has been a blast.

Then, it should probably be reckoned among the highlights of my academic career to be one of the seminar speakers there the last two years.  I really enjoyed being part of the official program, and the people seemed to respond pretty well.  And the kids loved that I could get them into the air conditioned speakers' trailer that had complimentary snacks and beverages.

Some of our favorite bands got their start or were nurtured at C-Stone:  POD, Relient K, Over the Rhine, Flatfoot 56, The Lost Dogs.  Some of the best concerts I've ever seen where there: the 77s when they were at the height of their powers; the Alarm; Mark Heard; MxPx; Zach Williams; and Paper Route come to mind.  My kids would no doubt list others.  It's hard for me to imagine what music our family would be listening to if it weren't for the festival.

Beyond the fun, JPUSA modeled Christ to many, many people who wouldn't go looking for him in the usual places.  This was a little corner of the Kingdom of God.  Man made institutions don't last forever, but I'm afraid the world is a poorer place for losing this one.

Cornerstone Festival

The good folks from JPUSA have asked again if I would be one of the seminar speakers at Cornerstone Music Festival this summer.  The fest has had an important part in my life.  I first went with three friends back in 1988 when it was still held at Grayslake County Fair Grounds.  Since then it moved to its own grounds, out in the middle of nowhere in western Illinois, closest to the thriving metropolis of Bushnell.  We've been taking the family there since the boys were in diapers.  It is certainly the edgiest of the Christian music festivals and draws a crowd that tends to shy away from the big commerical mainstream bands--though ironically, many of those bands got their start at Cornerstone (e.g., P.O.D., Relient K).  Such a crowd makes for interesting audiences at the seminar tents.  This is the third year in a row that I'm speaking there.  This time I'll have two different seminars, each three sessions long.  One of them I'm calling "Can Christian Belief Survive in an Age of Science?"  My short answer to that question is "yes".  Come to the seminar if you'd like the longer answer.  The other session is called, "Philosophy 201: Digging a Little Deeper."  Last year I did a session called "Philosophy 101", so this is building on that one in a sense (though it's not like you have to have successfully passed the first one in order to get in on this one!).  I hope to see some of you there--if not at my seminars, then at least in the mosh pit at Flatfoot 56.

Cornerstone

It's Cornerstone week.  We'll be loading up the van Wednesday morning and heading out on our annual pilgrimage to Bushnell, IL for the edgiest of the Christian Music Festivals.

If my count is correct, this is my 12th festival (the first three when it was still in Grayslake, IL).  And this is the second year in a row that I'm one of the speakers for the seminars.  Believe it or not, some of the metal heads who show up for the bands like Blindside and Flatfoot 56 actually come to hour long seminars too.  I'm doing three sessions on Science and Religion, and three sessions on Philosophy.

Cornerstone is putting on a retro night this year, with reunions by Petra, Daniel Amos, Stonehill, and Keaggy. I think the first cassette I ever bought with my own money when I was a kid was Petra's "Beat the System".  And if Stonehill is still singing "Turning Thirty", he'll have to do it twice to get in all the years.

Of course I'm also looking forward to some of the younger folks, like P.O.D. and Paper Route.  Good times are sure to be had by all.

Hope to see you there!

Claiborne

I mentioned I was a little disappointed with the seminars at Cornerstone this year (here). The first three I tried to go see, the speakers hadn't shown up yet. That kind of jaded me towards those speakers, and I didn't go back to try to see them later. I see now that was a mistake.

I get a podcast from Krista Tippett's "Speaking of Faith" radio show which airs on NPR (though not on our local NPR station--which is why I get the podcast). The show is very worthwhile listening, especially while out on long runs (very user-friendly instructions about how to subscribe to the podcast here). One of her recent shows was a conversation with Shane Claiborne, who was one of the late-comers to the Cornerstone seminar tents I missed. It was a pretty fascinating 53 minute conversation. I have a bit of a negative association with some of the celebrities in the emergent/missional movement for attitudinal reasons, but this guy is about as humble as they come. Very refreshing.

His words and life just drip with the Kingdom of God--a subject of near-future posts.

Cornerstone Hangover

We decided to skip out on the final evening of C-stone and pack up and head for home. As I type this entry on my Blackberry, we're stuck in traffic on I-80 with the Chicago skyline in the distance. Evidently there is an accident up in the distance somewhere.

It's interesting how after seeing a bunch of bands, some move up your ranking and others go down. Last night Switchfoot definitely went up. It was a great show (all live music instead of lots of pre-recorded tracks like the trend seemed to be) and they seemed very humble - again contrary to the trend.

I'm afraid, though, that one of my all-time favs, The Lost Dogs, dropped a bit. Perhaps it was because it was a midnight show, and we were dead tired after several days, but their show seems to be devolving into a burlesque show with a little music tossed in occassionally.

Tonight was a bunch of screamers on the mainstage, so we decided to shake the dust off our shoes (literally) and get home a day early to nurse the inevitable hangover caused by such an event.

At the rate the traffic is moving, though, it may be another night sleeping in a non-horizontal position.

Cornerstone Bound

I'm interrupting the Monday and Tuesday regular features (although Sunday's post probably should count as the Monday, ease-into-the-week posting). I'm technically on vacation for two weeks, and my normal schedule is thrown off.

Tomorrow, the family leaves for Cornerstone Music Festival -- the hippest, edgiest, counter-culture-est of the Christian music festivals. If I'm remembering correctly, this will be my ninth Cornerstone ('88, '89, '90, '00, '02, '03, '04, '06, '07). Of the 20,000 or so people in attendance, there aren't a lot that fit my demographic. And I suppose that is part of the attraction: it is different; it is a cross-cultural experience.

This will be the sixth C-stone for our kids. And given that the youngest is only 9 years old, it has been an experience for them that seems like a normal part of life (I hope we don't have too many counselling bills later on for that!). Some of the highlights that come to mind:

• Playing frisbee as the sun was setting at the old Cornerstone Fair Grounds in '88 while Margret Becker wailed songs from the Never for Nothing album.
• Watching One Bad Pig in '89 in one of those metal buildings (my introduction to the punk scene).
• Larry Norman's come-back concert in '90 (along with cameos with Geoff Moore and the Distance on "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music" and with DeGarmo and Key on "They Said He Was an Outlaw.")
• Dancing in the shoe-sucking mud to the W's in 2000 at the mainstage.
• The packed-out tent in 2002 for the first Lost Dogs show after Gene Eugene's death
• 2003 20th reunion concert at mainstage at which all the classic Cornerstone acts were paraded through for a song or two--and the full concert by Steve Taylor coming out of retirement.
• The Alarm late night in 2004.
• P.O.D. and David Crowder Band -- unlikely bedfellows, but my two fav's last year.

Some lowlights:

• The heat
• The dust
• The mud
• Going to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 during a raining afternoon
• Losing the 3-on-3 basketball tournament in 2000 after making it to the finals of the winners bracket
• Everyone getting sick on the ride home in 2000
• Seeing my favorite bands get old

Hopefully we'll add to the good column this year!

I may try some blog posts via email, live from the festival. We'll see if they've gotten reliable cell service out in the cornfields yet.