On Oct 13, 2007, the Lifesygns Youth group headed out to Continental Airlines Arena for NJ's biggest Christian Music Concert - Autumn Blaze. Artists included Fr. Stan Fortuna, Thousand Foot Krutch, Barlow Girl and tobyMac. I'll include a few photos here, but I have also created an album on Picasa - http://picasaweb.google.com/mwcawley/AutumnBlaze2007?authkey=8ZjUj9VNvCw.
This year for the first time Autumn Blaze featured an overtly Catholic artist who is a priest to boot. Fr. Stan Fortuna is a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a group of monks who are doing awesome things in the Bronx and other places. They live a life of poverty and chastity following the way of St Francis, relying on God and the goodness of others to feed and clothe them. Fr. Stan uses his music (a mix of reggae, beat box, rap and other styles) to evangelize. Some of the Youth Group kids got to talk to him before the show and I suspect most of the audience had no idea who he was as he wandered around the parking lot in his gray robes. He was pretty warmly received by the crowd when he performed which was cool.The kids, as always, had a fun time - dancing and head banging to the music. It seemed that Barlow Girl and tobyMac were the favorites. Overall, the whole show seemed a bit rushed, like they had rented the room for four hours and had to squeeze in as much as they could.
Mr. P and I scored press tickets and got to sit where the reporters site for hockey and basketball. The short story is that we told Autumn Blaze we worked for the Catholic Spirit and it wasn't until the day before the event that the Spirit said we could use their name. The seats weren't that much better than the kid's and we didn't get any special access but the key thing was we got to bring cameras in. For the curious, my shots were taken with my Canon Rebel XT with the built in flash and a combination of the 18 - 55 and 75 - 300 mm lenses. Although the pictures came out OK, this concert and the Cornerstone Festival led me to upgrade my lens and flash, which I'll post about separately.
Lifesygns has been going to Autumn Blaze since it was a small concert in the fields of Zarephath. In 2003, it moved to Continental Airlines Arena and attracted even bigger names like the Newsboys, Third Day and, my personal favorite, the OC Supertones. The first couple years at CAA it seemed like the sky was the limit for this event and maybe it would have to move to Giants Stadium at some point. It seems though that interest has waned - this year the Arena was maybe half full. The cost of the tickets, other Christian concerts (like Revelation Generation) and the insistence on it being an "outreach" event all contribute, I believe, to the drop in attendance. They should get back to there roots - a fun family event.
