WinterJam 2013

For Valentines Day Kayla and I decided to go on an adventure. Okay, it wasn't only for Valentines, it just happened to be that night, but it was still a great excuse and something fun for us to look forward to. As soon as our classes ended on Thursday we hopped in my car and headed north to Augusta for WinterJam 2013. If you're not familiar with WinterJam (and I can't really say I was. I just heard about it on the radio) it is a huge Christian concert that features ten acts for ten dollars. No tickets, just ten dollars at the door and you pick whatever seat you can get. They generally sell out and there was a chance that we wouldn't get in but we decided to risk in and luckily we not only got in but snagged some great seats.

There was a range of acts. None of them are my absolute favourites although I really like Matthew West and I like him even more now. The headliner was Toby Mac. I'm not particularly a fan of his music but as we suspected, he puts on an a-MAZING show. I was pleasantly surprised by Jason Castro as well. Remember him from Idol? Well he has a new record and the lead single is "Only a Mountain" which I've heard on the radio and really like. I purchased both Jason and Matthew West's newest cd's for $5 each. The top photo is Jason Castro, still sporting the dreadlocks :)

 There were a number of other acts as well: Sidewalk Prophets,a rock group called "Red" that neither of us enjoyed. The pyrotechnics were cool but the music was just loud and we couldn't understand any of it (does this mean I'm getting old?) Jamie Grace seems like a sweetheart and she did a great job. The lead singer for "Royal Tailor" was an amazing dancer. He reminds me of what a young Michael Jackson would have been like, complete with the moon walking :) There was a local group called Capital Kings who were pretty fun and another group called "OBB" who did sort of a pre-show. The whole thing was hosted by the guys from NewSong and they had a set as well.

Overall it's just a great night of music. The speaker Nick Hall talked about "resetting" and "recharging". It was basic stuff but I enjoyed it. Kayla and I agreed that our favourite act was Matthew West. He had some video testimonials from the people who's stories he had based some of his songs on and they were incredibly moving.

As I mentioned, Toby Mac (left) puts on an incredible show. Even so we left a little bit early so we could beat the crowds because we both had class in the morning. I'm glad we went though. It was a ton of fun.