The rise and fall of Kingdom Bound

Kingdom Bound is a four day Christian music festival at the Darien Lake Theme Park in Darien, NY (30 min east of Buffalo). Kingdom Bound (or KB) has been going strong for over 20 years and has seen some amazing bands come through. I think my first KB was when I was 16. I was pretty pumped to see bands like The Newsboys and the OC Supertones and Five Iron Frenzy. And of course to KB attenders, the entire theme park is open as well. So tons of great music, plus the rides.

Every year, KB consists of four venues within Darien Lake. There's the Performing Arts Center (PAC), where the big name bands play; the Park Stage, where the smaller, less-known bands play (usually); the Worship Tent, where all of the worship bands play and the less-known speakers talk; and the Marketplace, where tons of Christian businesses peddle their wares and Christian colleges do recruiting. It's a pretty safe set-up.

While I have been able to attend at least one day of the festival every year since I was 16, the only two I missed were last year's and the year before - KB 2008 & KB 2009. I was fortunate enough to go with Shannon to this year's, on Monday. Shannon picked that day because BarlowGirl was playing. I was pretty excited to go. It's been three years since the last time I went and the festival is always fun. But when I got there, I felt let down a bit.

It's not like KB changed since the last time and maybe that was the problem. KB has been doing the same thing, the same set-up for 20+ years now and they don't change because it works and it's safe. But I must say, I was bored. Yeah, I think that best explains how I felt, bored.

It's not like they lacked artists. There were tons of them. But I'm noticing much fewer big name artists than in previous years. Couple that with the fact that the set-up is the same, I worry that KB won't be able to keep up with the times. I would be very interested in seeing yearly attendance numbers...

Obviously, planning this kind of thing is not easy. I can only imagine the hassle of booking artists, working with the theme park officials, advertising, etc, etc. If an artist doesn't want to come, they won't come. And if KB can't afford them, they can't afford them. So sure, there are some things that they can't change.

So I say, change it up on your own terms! Mix it up! Here are some ideas to get the KB folks started:

1) Put some hard rock artists (TFK anyone?) on the big stage
2) Fill up the smaller stages with local bands (maybe even do a Christian Battle of the Bands)
3) Have a crazy worship night on the big stage. KB secured Matt Redman, Paul Baloche, Relevant Worship, and others. Put them all on in one night. I think that would be cool.
4) Don't have Reggie Dabbs speaking 6 times in 4 days
5) Put Relevant Worship in the PAC at a good time. They're a hugely popular local band

The key is to be preemptive and stay ahead of the game. If you keep the festival fresh, the people will want to come more often, more days. Right now, I think a lot of people are like me who pick one day that has one or two artists I like. But if every day looks amazing, I'd find a way to attend the whole thing. Also, I wouldn't worry about having louder bands playing all the time and offending the older generation. Once quick glance and you can see that the young people outnumber the old 10 to 1.

Oh, and bring back David Crowder.