Christian festival in Bushnell
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(Bushnell, Ill.) Monday June 29th kicked off the 26th year of the Cornerstone Festival.
Christian followers, music lovers and bands from across the country flock to Bushnell, Illinois to take part in the festival.
KHQA's Jarod Wells stopped in at the festival Thursday, July 2nd as things started cranking up, and found how this gathering draws people from different age groups and different backgrounds.
Thousands upon thousands of people are camped out a few miles outside of Bushnell to take part in the 26th Cornerstone Festival.
"It's a chance for us to bring together a lot of independent christian artists," Cornerstone Director and Organizer John Herrin said. "Whether it be art, poetry, a lot of musicians that probably don't quite fit in to the Christian Music World. That may be a little more edgy, a little more creative, a little more alternataive. And at the same time bring together what we hope is a lot of really intelligent Christian thought."
Herrin told Jarod Cornerstone began in 1984 at the Lake County Fairgrounds outside of Chicago. Now it is grown to offer more than 200 hours of seminars and workshops that he says deal with life issues everyone is facing.
"The seminars are wonderful," said Phyllis Gilbert, from Michigan who has visited the festival for 15 years. "We're not teenagers and sometimes the music has passed us by, but it's more about returning to the people. And seeing people from the community. And the seminar speakers are wonderful."
But what may attract more people is the music. There are nine official stages with more than 200 artists. But there are also more than 20 other "generator" stages that are open to anybody who wants to play. Those generate anywhere from 200-300 other artists.
"It's been so much fun," said first year visitor from Florida Destin Kramer. "I've never been to anything like this before. You can walk into tents and they have basically anything any musician would ever want. There's bands everywhere."
"Yeah. No doubt. I've never done anything like this either," said another first year visitor from Florida Chris Reichardt.
"It's almost like going to a farmers market," said Herrin, "but instead of produce stalls you have little band stalls and anybody can come and share their music."
The festival attracts anywhere from 16,000 to 18,000 people a year.
It will run through the Fourth of July on Saturday.
