I’m meant to be helping my sister pack boxes ready to move house at the weekend, and we have been making fair progress until today. Helen has gone back to bed and I have somehow strained my back, so I am hardly able to move. I need to rest my back before the weekend because I am going to have to help Dad move boxes and also I am intending to go into London for the Pentecost Festival on Saturday. So while I am incapacitated I thought I would gather my thoughts about the Big Church Day Out, which Helen and I attended on Sunday.
After all the hassle of the Saturday it was nice to be going to something that we hoped would be much better organised. Unfortunately through no fault of the organisers our car and many others got directed the wrong way by the Tom Tom website. Unfortunately where we should have turned right, our directions said turn left. We did, and ended up going about 12 miles in the wrong direction whilst eagerly looking for signs to the venue. Coming back again after stopping for help we started to see signs and we eventually found the place!
It really was a beautifully sunny day on the South Downs and Wiston House and the surrounding grounds were the venue for the day out. On the list of artists for the day were YFriday, Delirious?, Michael W. Smith, Lou Fellingham, Israel Houghton and Graham Kendrick. The mainstage programme kicked off 2 minutes early, and people were still trying to get into the grounds, due to others being sent the wrong way, and a local accident. Apparently over 5000 people were turned away on the day because all the tickets had been pre-sold, this only added to the traffic issues!
There were some issues concerning the press facilities provided for us esteemed members of the fourth estate, but overall the organisation was pretty good. YFriday sounded great, but I didn’t get much time to hear them as I had to make my way up to the house for the press conferences with other artists. So I left my sister to bake in the sun whilst I headed to the cooler shade of the house. I took the tractor from the main field up to the house and managed to catch a little of Lou Fellingham’s performance in the Tea Tent. She was sounding excellent but I had to pull myself away to go to the Press Conference.
The press conferences were being hosted by Mike Rimmer, radio presenter and Christian music journalist. So it was a good chance to ask him why he had refused my friend request on Facebook. He told me he normally denies people who look like stalkers!
I enjoyed the press conferences, I am not really used to them as I prefer to do 1on1 interviews, but that wasn’t going to happen! So I made the best of it. I was quiet through Israel’s conference, but asked questions in later ones as I got used to the format, and realised that my questions were no different to other people’s. I was really looking forward to Michael W. Smith’s conference as he is an artist I have enjoyed listening too for many years.
After the press conference I headed back to the mainstage area to catch the end of Israel Houghton’s set. There was a bit of a talk in between from Steve Chalke about the Stop The Traffick campaign as well as prayers shared for Europe and the UK government as well as prayer requests from people in the crowd who had texted them in over the afternoon.
Michael W. Smith’s set was fantastic, starting with tracks from A New Hallelujah and moving onto some classics including Friends, before moving onto more worship songs from his 3 worship albums. This reflective and worshipful set was well received with people joining in and lifting their voices to God. Before we knew it the set was over, even though it was over an hour long!
Delirious? were due on stage next, but unfortunately Helen was beginning to feel that she wanted to get moving. She had been sitting out in the sun all afternoon and was doing a bit of a lobster impression, so we decided to leave at this point. I had no choice really as she is the driver, and I merely the passenger!
We got lost on the way home a little bit, but by this stage we really didn’t care. We were exhausted, we stopped near home for a burger and kebab got home to eat. I tried to watch the Grand Prix and kept falling asleep, and eventually saw Button over the line and went to bed!
So a much better day than the Saturday, but I’ve got to do some of it all over again this Saturday as I head into London for the Pentecost Festival. My press pass has arrived and as long as my back has recovered I shall be there!
Tags: BCDO, Christian Music, Event, Jenson Button, Michael W Smith, Pentecost Festival
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