Faithful Fun at Big Ticket Fest

June 12, 2015

Celebrating Christianity in a modern way, the 10th annual Big Ticket Festival aims to honor God through music and fun, with loads of live bands, speakers, sporting events, festival food and all kinds of wholesome summer entertainment.

"I think most people have a misconception of God: that he’s centered on rules and making people "˜be good,’" explained festival president Drew Spanding. "But really, God is about freedom – and it’s important to party! We have so much difficulty in this world that the discipline of celebrating is critical to our spiritual experience here on earth."

POSITIVE GATHERING

The Big Ticket Festival, Spanding added, isn’t only for music fans.

"Music is a huge part of what we do, but even if someone doesn’t love music, they’ll still be able to have a great experience at the festival," he said. "We want to carry on the ancient tradition of what a festival has always been: gathering the tribes and bringing glory to God."

Spanding suggests making yourself part of the festival, as opposed to just being entertained by it, and there’s certainly a lot to help you do that.

Extreme inflatables, which last year included an inflated mechanical bull, offer plenty of silly fun in addition to an archery range, a zip line and a 5K run. The Stand Strength Team demonstrates feats of strength as messages of motivation and positivity.

Where to stay? Festival camping will appeal to both outdoorsy types and those who like to be right in the middle of the action for the entire weekend (local hotels and resorts are also nearby).

WEEKEND WARRIORS'

Now, let’s talk about all that music. With six stages – Main, Indie, Worship, Kids, the SmileFM Acoustic Stage and the Adrenaline Stage for rock and rap music – the fest is stepping up their artist roster for their 10th anniversary, covering every corner of faithbased music.

Big Ticket Country Night returns for its second year, the night before the actual festival. Josh Turner and special guests Red Roots will kick their boots across the stage to treat country music fans to something extra.

Spanding said they’ve snagged three real standouts for this year’s weekend headliners.

"TobyMac has been playing rock and rap music for years; he began his career as a founding member of DC Talk," Spanding said. "Chris Tomlin is a much more radiofriendly artist, but still maintains high stage energy, and The Newsboys from Australia are one of the most iconic names in Christian rock music today. We really went all out with our headline artists. It’s going to be huge!"

The 2015 Big Ticket Festival runs June 25- 27 at the Otsego County Fairgrounds (main entrance on Fairview Road). For tix and a complete schedule, visit bigticketfestival. com. Big Ticket Country Night tix (June 24) are sold separately.