Clover Festival

Up to 60 of the world’s top DJs will be spinning electronic dance grooves in the name of Jesus when the Clover Christian Dance Music Festival takes off at Traverse City’s bayfront Open Space on August 25-27.
That list will include masters of techno, house, trance and other blends of electronic music along with star vocalists, Christian hip-hop artists and dancers spread across five staging areas along West Bay.
And, if history repeats itself, the free festival has the potential to one day become the biggest thing to ever hit Traverse City -- bigger even than the National Cherry Festival or TC Film Festival.
Such was the case when Clover Festival producer Carol Marvin launched the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) six years ago, an international smash success which claimed one million attendees and the title of the “world’s biggest music festival.”
“When we did the Electronic Music Festival, people said it wouldn’t work and we’d be lucky to get 25,000 people,” Marvin recalled at a Clover Festival press conference last week. “But we produced a good fight and had one million people show up in the first year.”

INSPIRATION
“That first year I stood at the gate shaking hands with the first few people who trickled in,” she continued. “Then thousands of people started coming, then tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands.”
She added that she was inspired at the first DEMF to one day launch a Christian electronic music festival after getting up before an audience of 100,000 people and hearing DJ Stacey Pullen begin a praise set blending music and scripture that had a devastating spiritual impact on her.
“I climbed up on the main stage and looked out over a crowd of 100,000 people of every race, type and style and to me it was heaven on earth,” she recalled. “I thought, what would it be like to see hundreds of thousands of people dancing safely and having fun? Then Stacey started spinning in some scripture and I started crying... For all my years of producing, that was the greatest moment I’ve ever had.”

KEEP IT GOING
Needless to say, Marvin thinks big, and brings world-class credentials to the project. The petite blonde has produced 11 major
music festivals with over 500,000 in atten-dance and is also planning Christian music festivals in Chicago and Miami. She is backed by an ace team of electronic music and technical specialists who’ve staged dozens of jazz and techno festivals through the years, including the Ann Arbor Jazz Festival in addition to the DEMF.
Techno artists from around the world have responded enthusiastically, said music director Adriel Thornton.
“My first response to the idea of doing a Christian dance music festival was ‘Oh God!’,” Thornton said, drawing a laugh. “But we have the ability to go from zero to 60 miles an hour and we’re making history here.”
DJs from as far away as Amsterdam are coming to perform. For the uninformed, Thornton noted that techno music grew out of Detroit’s electronic music subculture of 20 years ago, while house music was developed around the same time in Chicago, fusing disco with electronica.
“When we started looking for DJs doing Christian music, I had no idea how many there were or that there was this huge Christian music scene,” he said. This will be a globally significant festival.”

DETAILS
Clover stands for Christ’s Love Restores, Respects, and Rejoices. The Clover Festival is a tribute to 16-year-old Katie Heintz, a St. Francis High School student who lost her life to an aggressive form of leukemia.
Katie’s father, Pat Heintz is offering local support for the festival in partnership with Pat Doyle, president of G. Patrick Doyle and Associates. Involved as the presenting organization is the Grand Traverse Educational Foundation.
“This is just what Katie would have loved to have seen,” said her father, Pat Heintz. “Youth and friends and families coming together in Jesus’ name for this great event.”
The three-day event will include a “Dance Dance Revolution Party,” faith services, up to 75 performances, daily fashion shows, Clover merchandise area, teen ministry and retail site, an audio lab for the creation of new music, a teen activity center and many other family-friendly offerings. Additionally, a huge main stage will be set up adjacent to the West Bay volleyball courts with a large sub-stage in front of the open space.

Look for the official Clover Christian Music Festival program in Northern Express Weekly the week of Aug. 20-27 with profiles on the artists and festival offerings.
View On Our Website