Madison’s Christian rock festival draws fans from as far as Ohio

By Steve Lawson

Published: June 9, 2008

Alison Jeffreys made her first trip to Madison on Saturday, but it was far from her first road trip to attend a concert by her favorite Christian rock group — Everyday Sunday.

“I saw them 24 times last year,” she said.

Everyday Sunday was one of four bands performing in Saturday’s SumFun Christian Rock Festival at Huntsville Ballpark. So Alison and her regular road trip companion — her mother, Shirley Jeffreys — traveled all the way from Johnson City, Tenn., to attend the event.

Shirley said she has followed Everyday Sunday around the country with her daughter for several years and always found it rewarding, especially the festival experiences.

“We had nothing at all like this when I was a teenager, and I think it’s awesome for these young people to be able to come to something like this,” Shirley said.

The Jeffreys arrived early Saturday afternoon for the 7 p.m. event, picked a spot for their blankets near the stage and started counting down the hours until their favorite band performed. They soon learned that the primary reason they traveled hundreds of miles was experiencing “technical difficulties.”

“We heard the band’s truck had transmission trouble on the way here and they were trying to find a way to make it here in time for the concert,” Alison said.

But the mother-daughter duo was not too distressed by the possibility of missing their favorite group.

“The band we just heard rehearsing was really great, so I think it will be worth the trip even if Everday Sunday doesn’t make it,” Shirley said. “It will give us a chance to hear some groups we haven’t heard before and we know God will be here, no matter who shows up.”

The Jeffreys represent the reason Stephen Myers and other youth leaders at Ellisboro Baptist Church developed SumFun three years ago. Myers said they saw the festival as an opportunity to expose their young people to a genre of Christian music largely unknown to many local youths.

“With the kind of radio reception we get in this area, a lot of our young people never had the chance to hear some of the music played on many of the mainstream Christian stations found in larger markets,” Myers said. “We came up with the idea to put together an outdoor music festival that would expose them to the style of music they were used to from other sources, but with clean, Christian lyrics.”

As word of the festival began to spread among Christian rock fans, attendance expanded to include people like the Jeffreys from Tennessee and other fans attracted by the list of performers.

“We even have a family here today from Ohio that stopped on their way to Emerald Isle for vacation,” Myers said. “And of course we have a lot of fans from Virginia here, as usual.”

From its simple beginnings in 2006, SumFun expanded last year into an all-day event with seven groups performing. Myers said the logistics involved in that undertaking made everyone realize the festival needed to return to a simpler format.

Saturday’s four-band lineup included two first-time participants — Everyday Sunday from Columbus, Ohio and Among the Thirsty from Clearwater, Fla. Lynchburg-based Point of Honor made returned for the second year in a row, and nationally acclaimed DecemberRadio from Blacksburg, Va., returned for the third time.

“Our festival is now officially the longest consecutive return engagement for DecemberRadio,” Myers said. “They came for our first festival and are back for the third time this year. I just hope we can continue this kind of relationship with the national attention they’re getting.”

DecemberRadio was nominated for a 2007 Grammy for best rock gospel album and won a 2008 Dove award. Everyday Sunday has received similar national attention, including a Dove award.

“To be in such a small market, we’ve been fortunate to attract the attention of some great artists,” Myers said.

SumFun has also attracted the attention of other markets. After last year’s event, Myers said they received interest from some people wanting to lure the festival to Guilford County.

“We’re hoping to get the kind of community and commercial support we need to keep the festival a local event in our own backyard, but it’s really expensive to rent all of the stage, lighting and sound equipment required for something like this,” Myers said. “We had to start charging admission for the first time this year and we’d like to be able to go back to free admission. The reason we started this was to allow our young people the chance to hear these bands, and we don’t want admission to be an obstacle to them doing that.”

For fans like the Jeffreys, the nominal $5 admission charge was nothing compared to the gas required to travel from Tennessee. But they considered the time and money well spent, especially after they heard that Everyday Sunday had arranged to rent a couple trucks and would make it to the festival in time to perform.

“Now we can settle back and really enjoy the other groups without worrying about them,” said Alison Jeffreys.

News editor Steve Lawson can be reached at .