Sonshine 2005

So, I just got back from Sonshine! It was soooooo wonderfully fun. It's like all my favorite bands in one place and I get to sleep in a tent. Chris describes it as the Christian version of woodstock and I think that's a good description of it. Kelsey, Heather, Cassandra, and I left early on Thursday morning last week to go to the festival in Wilmar, MN. It took about 3ish hours to get there. We arrrived and found Pete, Meadow Park's youth minister, since he had our tickets. We then found a good spot for our tent near the Wilmar highschool by my church's youth group. Heather pulled out her tent for us to start setting up when we realized the poles were not there. This is not Heather's fault, but something had to be done, so we went to Walmart and found that they had all the camping supplies you'd ever need lining the aisles (clearly they prepare for this festival in their town). So, Cassandra actually wanted to own a tent, so she paid for the majority of the tent which wasn't that expensive. We went to get groceries and lunch and such, then set up our lovely tent. The festival covers a highschool and it's grounds plus a connecting civic center like area were there was more tents and all the bands played around there. There were several small stages and then one huge one were the better known bands played. We explored the area and such and later on that night went to see Skillet, Audio Adrenaline, and Newsboys, which were all amazing, especially Newsboys, this was my favorite night. The next day we saw some bands on the smaller stage like Falling Up, they were awesome, and John Reuban. Later that night we saw Tobymac, Relient K, and Switchfoot, they were all awesome too, but the crowd was obnoxious, I guess they have the right to be, but it was as relaxing to watch like the first night. Heather and I decided to be mosh pitters during Relient K, so we squeezed our way into the middle and got stepped on and people were traveling over our heads and it was, I'm guessing like 200 degrees, heehee, man, that was craziness. The third day we saw Casting Crowns and MercyMe who were both very good!!! I was bummed though, cuz Kutless was supposed to be there this night but weren't for some reason? Overall, it was a blast to see and hear all my favorite bands. The festival was over the three hottest days of my life, it was constant heat and we all got lotsa sun. It was very lovely though, cuz every third hour or so, they open up a fire hydrant and spray it out so we could go run under it, which we did many times a day, it felt soo good! We were wet a lot of this trip, wet and dirty, sick! but it was worth it. I had lots of fun and I'm glad my friends were there with me! So, you should look at my pictures below and you can sorta see some of the bands I saw :) Peace Out