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Well? (Taken with Instagram)
My highly tentative schedule can be found here: http://cstoneschedule.com/trisarahtoops
The scheduled Tumblr meet-up will be Tuesday, the 3rd at 11:30 AM at the Chelsea Gallery Stage!
So, who am I seeing and hugging?
I can’t find a picture from 2005 & 2009 that shows the whole group, but here is Cornerstone over the years.
This is what makes it worth it!
Bittersweet.
Cornerstone Festival has transformed my life in so many ways. My first year attending in 2005 introduced me to some of my best friends that I can’t begin to fathom life without… Subsequently, in 2009, after spending 5 Cornerstones with these people I moved halfway across the country to live with one of those friends (which then turned into living with 2 of those friends and now means living in a town with 6 individuals that I met at Cornerstone over the years). Since 2009, I have used Cornerstone as a means to see my family and friends from back home and continue growing the family that I gained while at the fest.
I can’t imagine summer without thinking of those circus tents, late nights with The Chariot flailing on a stage, fireflies in the cornfields, trips to the Macomb Wal-Mart, and promising myself that “Next year, I’ll play Cornerstone.”
Words fail me. But I’m so fortunate to be attending the 28th and final year of Cornerstone. I hope to see you there.
From Cornerstone Festival, via email:
A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CORNERSTONE FESTIVAL
May 15, 2012
Dear Cornerstone Festival Family:
We are so grateful to have been able to share with you the gift that has been Cornerstone Festival all these years. Our annual gathering in this truly special community has shaped and illuminated our journeys together and apart, beginning in 1984, when the first Cornerstone drew 5000 people to a small fairgrounds outside Chicago. Through our peak years in the 90s when tens of thousands celebrated this festival’s amazing unity-in-diversity amid the Midwestern countryside, to more recent belt-tightening days, we’ve traveled our ups and downs together in a way that will be a part of our lives forever.
In 2012, we’ll be celebrating one final Cornerstone Festival together. Based on a range of factors – including changes in the market and a difficult economy – the timing seems right. This was obviously a hard decision, wrestled with over years and particularly over recent months. But with the decision made, we have the opportunity to come together one last time and bring to a happy, grateful – if tearful – close to this chapter of our lives.
Given this change, we’ll be making some adjustments to the lineup and schedule in the days ahead. Without giving too much away, we can say that we’d like to make this a special gathering to remember, to share stories and encourage one another with the vision of Cornerstone in ways that look back and ahead toward new things God is doing. Along with activities like art workshops, kids’ programs, seminars, games, movies – and MUSIC, of course – Cornerstone 2012 promises to be a time of thankful reflection and sharing among people who’ve walked this significant part of their life’s journey together.
Keep checking our website and Facebook page for changes and latest information.
Most of you know that Cornerstone Festival grew out of a labor of love from our church and community, Jesus People USA. The festival emerged from JPUSA’s Cornerstone magazine and Resurrection Band. Our community continues to operate one of Chicago’s largest homeless shelters, also bearing the name Cornerstone. We remain confident in God’s faithfulness and grace to lead us on to new chapters in our ongoing journey.
Thanks again to everyone who’s been a part of this amazing journey with us! What a privilege it’s been. Most of all, thanks to Jesus: the stone rejected that became the true Cornerstone. Amen!
We look forward with mixed sadness and joy to seeing you all this summer, one last time on our Bushnell campground, for a very special Cornerstone Festival 2012.
In His grace,
Pastoral Team, Jesus People USA – Evangelical Covenant Church
and The Cornerstone Festival Staff,
Genesis Winter & Scott Stahnke, directors
My heart just sank so deep… =[
(via shevanishedlikeadream)
Just a reminder: CF4131 saves you 5% off of your Cornerstone Festival ticket!
CF4131 saves you 5%! If you order today (Feb. 29) that’s additional to the 29% off deal! Less than $80 to attend Cornerstone? RIDICULOUS!
Listener.
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For Today on Main Stage.
I’m so freaking proud of these boys. I’ve known most of them for far too long ahaha I met David when he was 15. I lived across the street from a church and parsonage and one day my roommate and I heard a awful noise. We looked outside and there was this kid with massive, black dyed, huge emo swoop hair wearing girl jeans mowing the lawn, screaming along with whatever he was listening to (which happened to be Underoath’s TOCS). We proceeded to laugh a lot and he saw us and waved and started mowing behind the house. A few days later at an Ace Troubleshooter show, I saw him and said “You’re that kid!” and we’ve been friends ever since. He listened to a lot of my crap via AIM and Xanga when he was in high school and I was in college and he never once complained.
I rode in David’s van to the first For Today show ever. Which had a totally different line up, so it’s weird to even refer to them as For Today, and was in a bowling alley in a rinky dink Iowa town called Hawarden. I’ve literally been there since the beginning and it blows my mind to have seen them on such a huge platform as Cornerstone’s main stage.
Through him, I met Ryan, Brandon, and Mikey when they were all in high school too. They have all grown so much and I’m like this weird proud mother that gets nervous for them every time I see them play. Mattie joined much later and while I’ve never been close with him, he’s always been so sweet to me because he knows that I support them wholeheartedly knowing where they have come from and been.
Now some of them are married, some of them are engaged, and one of them kayaks a whole lot, and they’re so precious to me. And I know they get a lot of crap for being pretty outspoken about their beliefs, but I will always stand with them 100%. Sometimes even I think some things are said that cross some lines when context is lost, but I do know that their hearts are in the right place and that they are doing this for all of the right reasons. They truly are more of a ministry than a band and I can’t wait to see where God uses them next. And maybe it will all end a lot sooner than I think, but it’s been such a blessing to watch them so far.
The Chariot on the Underground Stage.
In order to break up the HP, I’m starting to queue up some Cornerstone pictures. If you’re my friend on facebook, you’ve already seen these. Sorry, bros. But click through links will take you to my flickr account.
To be honest, I felt like my pictures were totally lackluster this year, but I’ve never been great at live shots and have gotten pretty lucky in the past. And fiddling around with a newer lens in a totally different scenario than what it is normally used for was a learning experience. My portraiture has gotten a good bit better than where it was at, but again—live shots are so dang tricky. Especially when I don’t have a flash to bounce. By next year, I should have one and that will be another learning experience.
All rambling aside, I miss Cornerstone already. I would live there year long and I hope that it goes on forever regardless of what changes have to be made for it to continue so I can raise my kids to be Cornerstone babies.
