| Sunday, July 8, 2007 |
| Creation East fan review |
The following is a review of the Creation East festival written by one of our readers, Emily Makar.
Creation Festival in the northeast (and northwest) is a Christian music festival that happens annually, next year being their 30th. Not knowing what to expect, my mom, sister Michelle and I (Emily) set out for the experience.
We arrived after a long drive at around 4:00 pm on Wednesday, June 27th. The line of cars to enter the festival at Agape Farm was miles long. We didn't want to miss the first few bands before Switchfoot and Relient K, so me and my sister Michelle set out to walk to the entrance; we definitely wanted decent places to view the show.
We checked in, got a deal and paid a little over $80/person for the 4 days, got wristbands, and headed in. We arrived near the first camping field and saw thousands and thousands of people already there; tents were set up, people were walking around eating and heading to the beginning shows. We walked far to find the main stage and when we found it, we were shocked. There were hundreds of people already standing in front of the stage, and no one had even started playing yet. We thought we were doomed to mediocre seats, which we were not used to, especially for a Switchfoot show ;).
Fortunately, there was a huge thunderstorm. Ha ha! This clearned out thousands of people from the fields, sending them back to their tents and cars. Of course, the die hard Switchfoot and Relient K fans did not budge from their spots at stage, so we still faced a challenge. The staff workers forced us all to back away from the metal barricades but many insisted on sticking around. My mom caught up with us at this time and had a towel with her. All three of us ducked under it while others hid under huge plastic tarps freshly torn off the ground, moist blankets, and a few umbrellas. Purple lightning spread across the sky as rain poured. At that point I thought we should walk around behind the stage and try to find the SF guys! It turned out that we were the only people who thought of this, somehow.
As the drum sets and guitars were being covered onstage, we walked around back and stood by the gate near the tour busses. Some of the Switchfoot and Relient K guys were walking to and from their tour buses. We called over Matt Thiessen who chatted with us for a while about their tour with Switchfoot, saying they were excited. We asked if they’d be playing “Deathbed” this fall and he said there were a few complications, but they would try to get it worked out. I think they’re planning on having Jon and all of Switchfoot on stage with them for it and therefore are laying out a plan on how they’ll perform the song.
Minutes later Jerome came over; incredibly nice guy as usual. He recognized us from the last two concerts we went to, where we also had the chance to speak. He said, "One of you is Emily!" Correct Jerome! I said "Yeah that’s me!" :D We gave them silver rings last time that said "Switchfoot" on the front, had the bolt on the back, and engravings inside. He remembered that we gave them to him and said his wife loved the ring. Got a quick pic, chatted a bit more, and he headed off.
Later Tim walked by and after recognizing us we chatted about whether the show tonight would continue since the incredible lightning and rain continued. He said, "We came here to rock!" Rock on Tim :) Snapped a photo, and he was off to the bus.
After some more waiting we saw the other guys walk by, but they seemed too busy to chat. We then heard some ruckus over by the front of the stage and darted off at once. The second we arrived at front stage, the staff allowed the push of the crowd to regain their spots. We got incredibly lucky with front row on Tim's side.
The guys came out looking classy, as always. Although it was a short set list, only eleven songs, each song was sung with passion. We could tell that Jon totally got into a lot of the songs; very moving and beautiful. Lots of jumping, jamming out, hair flips, and guitar swings accompanied.
Creation's setlist:
oh! gravity
stars
dare you to move
american dream
ammunition
this is your life
gone
we are one tonight
on fire
awakening
meant to live
 (Photo by Tim Landis. To see more official Creation Fest photos, go here.)
Starting out with Oh! Gravity is always great. Really awesome rock. Dare You to Move was moving as always! The American Dream pause was long and still so the crowd got LOUD. Really cool to hear Ammunition live again. During We Are One Tonight, the moshing and slam dancing (Relient K kids?) got really rough and hard to deal with. My mom hated it. A few girls actually passed out and had to be carried out.
 (Photo by Tim Landis)
During On Fire, Jon jumped off the 7 foot high stage and ran into the crowd as the staff people freaked out; they were very taken aback. Funny! At the beginning of Awakening, you can see our video of the staff hoisting Jon back on stage. Meant to Live was the last song and it sounded so perfect. The only downer about the ending was that the staff and roadies ran out on stage to clean up before Drew even finished the end of the song! They began gearing up for Relient K and Switchfoot had no chance for an encore or the final bow and hug. This was probably due to the almost 2 hour delay from the thunderstorm, ah well.
The 8 hour journey home took longer than expected, having to stop a few times to sleep on the way, but proved to be feasible. My mom says she’ll never camp again, but even after all the mishaps, lack of comfort, rain, and swollen feet, you realize there’s so much good that overrides the bad! I’d go back to Creation Fest next year in a heartbeat.
 (Photo by Tim Landis)
Check out some videos of the event taken by Emily's sister on Youtube.Labels: concert reviews., pictures., reader submissions. |
posted by gellie @ 12:41 AM  
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| 24 Comments: |
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great review. I love the guys, and their desire to rock through the storm. :)
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Thanks for the review! I'll have one soon. I was in the press tent all week for interviews and got to see/hear switchfoot and relient k's interviews that day. I also got to be at sound check, which was an event all unto itself. I so wish I had run into you somewhere Em! Maybe Valdosta?!?!?
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Awsome review. Awsome picture! I'm so jealous. I wish SF would come here this summer!! lol
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That was a great review. Loved it. Glad you had a fun time Emily!
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aww emily!
I'm glad it was good.
Btw, I love both yours and Michelle's shirts! You made them yourselves right?
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That is absolutely flippin' AWESOME!!! Way to be a sersiouly die hard fan Ems!!! Wow and those rings sound absolutely flipping awesome, I need 1 :)!
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man u guys are making me so happy that im going to SWC cuz i want it to be as good as that trip!
it also seems like us girls like the front row by Tim, thats where i was @ my concert too....and my friends and my cousin!!!!
LOL
great updates!
~lydz
[hope i meet switchfoot @swc *cross fingers*]
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That was an awesome review! I wish that i could have been there, it seems like it was lots of fun. The pictures were great and so were the videos!
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"At that point I thought we should walk around behind the stage and try to find the SF guys! It turned out that we were the only people who thought of this, somehow."
not quite true.. heh. i know i thought of it, i actually walked over there for a short while, but they weren't there then and i was getting soaked.
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@chrissy:sorry about that.
man Tim is really short.
is he shorter in real life Emily???
or are you just tall?????
lol[werid questions there]
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yay awesome review!!! purple lightening? that's gotta be freaky. i wish i could meet jeromey! =(
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great review. sounds like an awesome time.
@lydz: he's just short.
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@katie: i knew he was short but he looked like hi got shorter!!!
LOL
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Sounds like an AWSOME time!!!! I wish I could have been there! When I went to the St. Joseph Mo. concert Jon passed right above my head and his foot kicked my friends face but other than that awsome time! I think it would be great if all the guys crowd surfed....anyhoo glad you had a great time!!!.....Tim really is short ;)
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I want to stand next to tim cuz he'll make my seem tall
[im short too, Tim]
TEHE
LOL
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Thanx for the great review. You should switch out the pics and maybe use those of Luke aka VArocker07 on the boards.
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yay! i was gunna go there, but my mom wouldn't let me... my friend's parents were gunna take her, me and 5 other friends, but a lot of us weren't allowed to go. So then only one of my friends went without even telling us!!!!!!!
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Thanks everyone for your kind words and for reading my review!
And yeah we made those shirts Mukta.
I'm at the beach right now...Gotta go catch up and watch the podcast!
:)
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Oh, and thanks, Phil, Gellie and Vicky.
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When I click to Continue Reading (both on firefox and internet explorer) it does not expand the post. Nothing comes up for it :(
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did yall make those t-shirts?
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Yeah we made the t-shirts a few months ago :)
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great review. I love the guys, and their desire to rock through the storm. :)