But we’re a crowd pleasing bunch here at AgapeFest HQ and we want to give back. SO. If you take our little survey we’ll enter you in a drawing for an AgapeFest Prize Pack with all sorts of goodies in it! We’ll be pulling one everyday until May 24th.

All you need to do is click this link and take our survey. We’ve already had one winner, so wish Bonnie Smith from Virginia, IL a congratulations!

We met a ton of cool people, got muddy, listened to some INSANELY good music… and I even got to eat that funnel cake I wanted!

We want to thank each of you that came out for supporting our festival. A lot of you have been coming for years and for some of you it may have been your first experience at AgapeFest. We want you to know that we appreciate the time you take and money you spend to come out and support us and the artists that God blesses with.

If you were blessed by God at af09, PLEASE tell us your story — post it in the comments or on our Facebook page. If you got some awesome pics this year, PLEASE share them with everyone — you can add them to the facebook fan page and/or post them to our Flickr photo group.

But most of all, stay in touch with us. The relationships that we are able to build with you guys is what keeps us doing this each year. Follow us on Twitter, friend us on Facebook, add us on MySpace… just keep in touch.

We really do love you, and the staff here at AgapeFest HQ prays for you all the time. Thank you again. You certainly blessed all of us this year.

Representing the staff of AgapeFest 2009,

Joel
AgapeFest HQ

From our staff, thank you for supporting our festival. We can’t wait to see you all. We’ve been praying for all of you and so excited that we get the chance to worship together this weekend.

Just to make it clear, we have never, in 32 years of AgapeFest, cancelled the festival because of weather. And this year is no different. The show will go on if it rains, or, preferably, if the sun is a’shinin’. So come rock with us!

Also, we will keep updating this space all day long and probably thru the weekend. Keep in touch!

And now… we’re gettin’ some sleep. It’s going to be a long, fun weekend!

First and foremost: We’ve put together a pretty good summary of all of those burning questions that come in year after year. You can find all of that on our Answers page.

So, the biggies.

NO FIRES. I promise you. We get this question so often every single year. No fires of ANY kind are allowed at AgapeFest. That includes camp fires, camping stoves, butane torches, lit matches, lighters, candles… nothing. Nothing with a flame. The Fire Marshal will be very upset with you if you break this rule. We understand that you want to bring food and cook it. That’s fine. But you can’t cook it on the festival grounds with any sort of flame. Not our rule, but we have to enforce it. Please don’t give security a hard time. Just leave the flames at home and get some yummy funnel cakes or something.

I repeat. NO FIRES

Okay, now that that’s out of the way. Tickets will be on sale at the gate, but they are much more expensive ($10) than if you buy them beforehand. So buy your tickets before the day-of! All those details are on the Tickets page.

By the way, if you ordered your tickets in the last week or so, they will be held at Will-Call at the ticket booth. Sometimes the mail is too slow to get them to you in time, so we just hang on the them. Make sure you have some ID on you so that you can pick up the tickets.

We’ve also got some super-cool new shirts this year.  You can see us fine people modeling them in the photo above! They will be waiting for you at the afMerch table in the Vendors Pavilion!!! The shirts look awesome (I’m wearing mine right now).

And finally, check back here next Wednesday when we’ll start bringing you live updates from the fairgrounds as we set up this event. We’ll be sending photos, videos, and all sorts of things right to this site. Get your commenting fingers ready, because we’ll want your words!

We can’t wait to see you all next week!!!

Mark David Goins- Friday Night Speaker

David and Surface Deep on Friday night. They will be kicking off AgapeFest 2010 with a bang. These guys are awesome live, you cannot miss them! Then after Sanctus Real Mark is going to take the stage by himself to speak! We got some info on Mark so you know more about him.

Rev. Mark David Goins, 25, was born in 1985 to Rev. David & Sheila Goins of Alton, Il.   His family resided in a community which exposed Mark to a variety of different cultures including people, churches, and a diverse selection of music venues.

Mark attended the public school system in Alton, Il., and graduated from Alton Sr. High in 2003. After high school Mark went on to Greenville College, where he accepted The Call to Ministry in 2004.

Mark began to lead bible studies on campus and at church on a weekly basis. Also, he founded the first all men Midnight Prayer Group for Greenville College. As a member of his college town worship team, he played the drums and worked closely with the music coordinator on the music arrangements for each service. In addition, Mark began writing and co-writing worship songs. Then in 2007, Mark graduated from Greenville College with a double BA in Sociology and Psychology.

Mark has been ministering in word and song at various venues throughout Illinois and the surrounding area. He has a sincere desire to minister and reach the hearts of those who are lost and dying spiritually. Mark founded the band, Mark David and Surface Deep, which recorded and released their first CD demo in 2009.

The Lord’s favor continued to shine on his life as he wasmarried on August 29th, 2009 to his lovely wife, Marqueta
Stewart-Goins. Mark is known by his peers to be a very kind, passionate, likable, and professional Man of God.

Mark David and Surface Deep

Thank you Lord Jesus for providing this shelter! We thank you for your amazing love for us and that you are keeping us safe in the middle of these storms. We pray for the safety of everyone traveling in this weather to hear your Word and to praise the God who is ever-loving and never-failing.

Amen.

See you all soon!

Visit us on our Flickr group to see more photos.

Answers:
April: Can I bring my dog if I clean up after her?

We’d love to play with your dog (well, those of us who are dog people), but some people don’t want to. Plus we can’t regulate who’s dogs are healthy and who’s aren’t. It’s just a mess. So we’d rather you don’t. Sorry!

Jason: If it rains alot will the show be canceled?

Nope. Rain or shine. If it gets real bad a band might have to cut their set short. But that doesn’t happen very often. It’s just one the risks we end up taking with an outdoor festival. It’s all part of the “fun”!

Seriously though, check out the photos I’m posting on that flickr group. Then join and add your own!

Yeah, good point. We’re looking at having a bit of rain on Friday, but hopefully more in the morning than afternoon. It will be chilly on Saturday! Bring a hoodie, or buy one @ the festival! Also, PRAY that the weather will be awesome. We need all the prayer help we can get on that front for sure!

Jeff: So, how much are the agapefest tee’s goona cost? How much are the hoodies?

We’ve got AgapeFest tees in black and red for $15 at the festival. We even have girly shirts, so you girls won’t have to wear a baggy old shirt if you don’t want to! We’ve got black zip hoodies that’ll be $30 and sweatshirt blankets for $30 (these are super-cool, I have one and it rocks). We also have AgapeFest frisbees for $5.

Andrew: This year, will we have extra water on-hand for the handwashing stations? If not, I would suggest that everyone brings a little bottle of hand sanitizer. Those handwashing stations run out fast.

Thanks for this, I’ll forward it on to the director of Festival Services and see what we can do. It might be a good idea to bring some hand sanitizer anyway.  You never know what’s on your hands!

Courtney: What time do each of the concerts start?

Sorry for how long this one took. I’m putting it up as you read this. So check over on the Bands page for a full schedule.

If you have any more questions before the festival, go ahead and leave them in the comments and I’ll try and get them answered for you. 2 days left! We’re so excited to see everyone again!

Camping:  You don’t need to reserve a site. It’s first come, first served. So get here early and get a good spot. Bring a tent, sleeping bag, camper – but NO FIRES OR STOVES. It’s not us; we’d love to have a barbecue with you. But state and county laws won’t let us have any kind of fire on the grounds. That means we can’t allow campfires, open flames, camping stoves, etc. Sorry guys. Don’t bring them and we won’t have to stop you from using them. Easy enough right?

Parking: It’s free. If you bought a ticket, you get parking.

Music: We start kickin’ out the jams at 5:00pm on Stage 2 with the Battle of the Bands. Main Stage music will be done around 11:00pm (that’s David Crowder*Band) and then Coffee House takes over in the Stage 2 building. Jo’s Java (our local bean juice shop) will be servin’ up caffeine.

Saturday morning the music will start around 11:00. So sleep in! Or get up and have some group worship with your friends and neighbors. Guitars are welcomed and encouraged! The festivities will wrap up around 11:00pm.

Showers: Nope, sorry guys.

Food: We’ve got loads of food vendors coming out. Pizza, corn dogs, funnel cakes, orange shakeups (the director’s favorite) and almost anything else you can think of. So pack some spare change.

Swag: We’ve got a limited run of special AgapeFest 2008 t-shirts, hoodies and blankets that’ll be available in the Vendors Pavilion along with merch from all of the great bands playing the festival. Plan accordingly!

Got questions? Ask in the comments and I’ll put together another one of these FAQ posts.

Only 3.5 days until AgapeFest 2008!

We’re sorry for the late notice, but some things can’t be avoided. RED and Tenth Avenue North just couldn’t work out their scheduling to make it to the festival. We learned about their conflicts last week and have worked hard to secure these two amazing bands to fill those slots.

As a special treat, this year’s late night Coffeehouse will feature Addison Road. We’re excited to have these three amazing artists at AgapeFest this year. Go to their websites and message boards and thank them for coming!

We are exactly 14 days away from festival weekend. That’s only two weeks. Get your tickets if you haven’t yet! This year is going to be AWESOME.

Links
Phil Wickham
Spoken
Addison Road
Updated Main Stage Lineup
Updated Stage 2 Lineup w/Coffeehouse