SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO AM) LifeLight, one of the world's largest Christian Music Festivals, held annually on a farm near Worthing, South Dakota, is calling it quits.
Festival Founder Allan Greene says the focus now will be on a ministry of directly meeting people's needs, especially as Sioux Falls grows.
"There's about 4,000 people per year moving here which has also created great diversity and great need and so we are turning our efforts towards that," Greene explains to KELO Radio News.
Lifelight has been going for 19 years. Greene admits the festival's end won't be easy.
"Change is difficult, especially for folks who have all those memories of the festival, but change is good as well," says Greene. Greene acknowledges that putting on a free festival each year has been an expensive undertaking, but money is just part of the reason for shifting focus.
The festival will be replaced with a program called CityServe and a smaller musical component called CityFest, over Labor Day. Greene says Lifelight wants to work with local churches and nonprofits to serve community needs - everything from a meal to a haircut.
The Lifelight Festival started in 1998 in a Sioux Falls church with a small crowd of about 2,000 people and grew to crowds of over 300,000. It became a national event, bringing in top Christian music acts.
