Himmelfahrt Festival

On Thursday I went to the Himmelfahrt Festival (what a great name eh?). It was a Christian music festival in Heilbronn, featuring some local bands and three big timers in the Christian music world - Kutless, TobyMac and Chris Tomlin. I went with one of my co-workers, Jennessa and 5 of our students. We had a pretty good night. Jennessa and 4 of the students made it up front, into a limited standing room area and got to be very close to the stage. The other student and I got separated in the dash to the front and ended up hanging out in the balcony area. I had a great view of the stage!

TobyMac surprised fans by sneaking to the back of the auditorium during a music interlude and then crowd surfed his way back to the front. It was pretty cool!
Chris Tomlin was great, of course. He's definitely one of my favorite worship artists (along with Third Day, David Crowder and Hillsong).
Another view of Chris Tomlin... check out all those fans on the floor. Chris told us it was his first time to perform in Germany, and that we were his best fans, ever. Now, I'm sure most artists say that to pump up their fans even more, but hey, we'll take that compliment! TobyMac said we were the best concert in the past 5 years.

I think the coolest part of the concert was to see so many Germans and some Dutch folks come together to praise the Lord. The church isn't super big and vibrantly growing across Europe. In many places beautiful old church cathedrals sit empty and have become tourist destinations, not places of worship. It was fun to sing praise songs with such a diverse group of people.