Roasting at the Pulse Fest

This weekend was the annual World Pulse Festival, which has become a HUGE Christian music festival in South Bend, topping out last year at 40,000 and probably had a lot more this year. Also, it was very, very hot. The festival itself was on Saturday, but the night before our church hosted a Pre-Pulse party for some churches from Michigan and for a couple in Ohio. The Ohio churches being those lead by Benjamin and Tom and Paula, so it was nice having them up here again this year.

We fed everyone pizza then had a road rally/scavenger hunt around town (Paula's team was the only one that got lost). This was followed by a concert by a group from northern Michigan called Outshined. The lead singer is the brother-in-law of our pastor's wife. This group is pretty good and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. At some point (I think) everyone actually went to bed. We housed everyone at the church and our youth building.

After breakfast Saturday morning, we headed over to the festival site. I had to work Saturday morning, so I couldn't go right away. By the time I got there, Mandisa was performing (the one from American Idol). She was pretty good, although I'm not crazy about the Gospel style she does, but she's a good performer. A group called C3 had already performed, although no one I talked to was all that crazy about them.

Mandisa was followed by Skillet. I like some of their stuff and they did a good job, I just wasn't overwhelmed. Kutless performed last year and has a similar style, but I liked them much better. The crowd wasn't all that much into it either.

What I was waiting for was the next act, Toby Mac. I'd never seemed him solo, but saw him twice when he was lead singer of DC Talk. That group was one of the best live acts I ever saw. As a solo artist, he didn't disappoint. Backed by the "Diverse City" band, they put on a wonderful show. Full of energy and a wide variety of rap, hip-hop and funk. The crowd was really energized by his performance and I'd love to see him again.

After that was Casting Crowns. Yeah right, like we're going to listen to this group after Toby Mac. We left before they even came on. I'm sure they did just fine.