Here are a few more thoughts after the Coachella Music Festival. I helped Joshua Hanson’s Kingdom Promotions work with non-profit ministry rehab programs. They help men and women both young and old learn to work and re-enter life after drugs and alcohol. 180 men and women worked the festival and raised money to support their live-in programs.
Among the festivals I have attended over the last seven years, Coachella ranks at the top in terms of commercialization. It is expensive. Even the food vendors pay 41% of their sales to the festival. The people attending the festival are primarily twenty and thirty somethings, with a smattering of forty to sixty somethings. What stands out at Coachella is the people who seem to crave attention. Everyone seems to want to see the stars or be the stars, and the festival epitomizes the youth and fame idolatry of American culture. I spent a good amount of the time getting to know the festival, talking to festival goers, and dreaming of ways to reach Coachella. This festival tops the list of difficult festivals to introduce transformative art and ministry that I have attended in the US and UK, but there are some future hopes I will be working on with Joshua to introduce social justice elements to this festival.
I am now in Long Beach, California visiting my mom, and will be giving a ministry update at Church on the Coast in Carlsbad, CA this coming weekend. On May 5th, I fly “home” to Salem, and will be there for 10 days before I hit the skies again, and go to the UK for three months.
There is still a need to raise a few thousand dollars for the ministry in the UK and Czech Republic, which will include seven festivals, and a week at Land’s End in Cornwall to consider how to minister at Penzance (a pirate weekend) and hopefully some speaking engagements. There will be some training times, and good amount of time in Welsh speaking Wales. Over the last few years, it has been this time in the UK which has been some of the most fruitful and fastest growing ministry opportunities.
You can look for a book in the next couple years highlighting some of the festivals in the US and UK. You can help donate to this mission at SalemGathering.com.
Phil Wyman: Dim Saesneg 