This was last day of the festival, and was the second day I highly anticipated the Fringe stage. A couple of the bands I was really excited about were Fireflight, Falling Up, BarlowGirl and Chris Tomlin. Some of the bands on Saturday I’d never heard of before Creation or were bands that I hadn’t heard much of their music.
The Parachute Band was a great way to start off Saturday morning. They really start a strong upbeat worship that gets you going. I must confess I was quite tired that morning but even then I couldn’t resist getting into the worship. After the speaker they broke into another set of some of their more unique songs. It was really cool to see them speak about God and the songs that they play.
I hadn’t really heard anything from Storyside: B before Creation NW. To me they sounded like any other rock group, nothing really special other than lyrics. They preformed well and sounded good.
New hard rock group Fireflight was second on the Fringe after Hear It First’s Indiescovery, battle of the bands. Fireflight put on a great show, their debut album was released a couple days prior on Tuesday. I highly recommend Fireflight to anyone looking to rock. They are the only female lead hard rock group debuting in Christian music this year, and to note, only the males of the band scream.
The Afters broke out their typical awesome set of songs. They put on a very good show when it comes to their concerts. Although many bands lack when it comes to vocals in their concerts, The Afters lyrics were loud and clear and very good quality. I was blown away by each song one after the other.
Next was the always entertaining John Reuben. I don’t think anyone has more gimmicks them Mr. Reu himself. He broke out the, “Does anyone want, an overpriced t-shirt, for free?” gimmick and everyone went nuts. John Reuben is probably another one of the most entertaining acts at Creation ’06. Even if you’ve seen him as many times as I have he always puts on a great show!
I watched the beginning and end of Project 86, in between I went and got lunch. From what I heard they really rocked it! I heard a lot of their hit songs from their last two albums. They also had a great message, stating it’s not about them, but Jesus.
One of my favorite bands of all time was right after the Fringe stage speaker. Falling Up came out and did a rather short set, singing hits from their two albums, I was kind of bummed that they didn’t do anything new, but sometimes that’s just how it works.
I skipped Anberlin for the most part; I decided to watch The Afters on the Acoustic Café. I heard a lot of people say that Anberlin had a poor show. The Afters played their best songs and had a good size crowd, a little bit before The Afters stopped BarlowGirl started. So I headed down and watched a great set from the all female rock act. They had a good size crowd and took advantage of it. It was also Lauren’s birthday (drummer). So everyone sang happy birthday. The band played many of their hits like “Never Alone” and “Mirror.”
I have to admit I wasn’t that excited about Israel and New Breed, but Israel really busted it out and got creation excited. Worship can unite everyone and I thought it was really cool to get everyone together and get into some rocking worship.
The final speaker was Mark Matlock; unfortunately I missed nearly his entire message.
One of the best worship leaders around was next, and the excitement for Chris Tomlin was high.
I missed most of the Newsboys due to exhaustion... but from what I did see of them they put on one of their best shows (that I've seen)
Overall In the end it’s hard to remember that Creation isn’t only a music festival, but also a time for listening to speakers give sermons about lots of different topics. Many people forget this, I think Creation is a great festival, I think they could change a few things, but for the most part to join with 15,000+ to celebrate God’s creation you get a small hint of what Heaven will be like. If you are close to any of the Creation festival we highly recommend them to you! It’s worth the money! They’re now starting one down in Texas I believe which will be called Creation South. Check out the web site for dates for next year’s events. www.creationfest.com
Article by Jeremy Koering
