# LifeLight Music Festival

LifeLight Festival is an annual free outdoor Christian music festival held over Labor Day weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

## History

LifeLight Festival was started by Alan and Vicki Greene in 1998 as an afternoon concert at Good News Reformed Church on Valley View Rd, drawing about 2,000 people. By 2001, the festival was moved to the W.H. Lyons Fairgrounds in Sioux Falls to accommodate the growing crowds. In 2002, attendance tripled from the year before, growing to 32,000 attendees over a 3-day weekend. LifeLight has since grown to over 320,000 attendees over a 3-day weekend, expanding to six stages, with a budget of nearly $700,000 each year. After outgrowing previous locations, the LifeLight festival found a new permanent home for the Festival on a family farm near Worthing, South Dakota. The 2010 Festival was the first at the new location. It is a free concert but provides a great economic boost to Sioux Falls. Festivals like this one said to bring up to $10 million. Since 2005, LifeLight has also sponsored spring and fall tours featuring LifeLight artists. They started as local tours with primarily local artists but over the years, LifeLight Tours has partnered with several national and regional bands/speakers and now travel well beyond the Midwest for tour dates. Past tours have featured artists John Reuben, Brian Welch, Sanctus Real, Phil Joel, Disciple, Project 86, Children 18:3 and many more and traveled to cities in Texas, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota as well as other states. The 2013 festival in South Dakota hosted main showings of Plumb, Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, and Skillet.
No festival was held in 2020-2022 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic
In 2023, the festival was held at the 8th & railroad district parking lot in downtown Sioux Falls. Despite temperatures of over 100 degrees, 30,000 people attended. In 2024 the festival is to be held at Nelson Park in eastern Sioux Falls to increase capacity.

## Attendance

* 1998: 1,500
* 1999: 4,000
* 2000: 6,500
* 2001: 10,000
* 2002: 32,000
* 2003: 110,000
* 2004: 240,000
* 2005: 275,000
* 2006: 263,000
* 2007: 320,000
* 2008: 320,000
* 2009: 270,000
* 2010: 320,000

## Artists
### 2013 Festival

* For Today
* Plumb
* The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
* Levi the Poet
* Flyleaf
* Building 429
* Newsboys
* Rhett Walker Band
* Audio Adrenaline
* Fireflight
* We Are Leo
* Phinehas
* Unarmed For Victory
* At The Wayside
* Aaron Gillespie
* Children 18:3
* The City Harmonic
* One Accord
* Sean Michel
* Ravenhill
* Spencer Kane
* From The Eyes of Servants
* Love Out Loud
* John Reuben
* Je'kob
* Shuree
* Disciple
* Lybecker
* Tru Serva
* Double Vision
* Grant Lockner
* Rapture Ruckus

### 2012 Festival

* Tenth Avenue North
* Skillet
* Peter Furler
* Five Iron Frenzy
* House of Heroes
* Sanctus Real
* Leeland
* Mandisa
* Christy Nockels
* Downhere
* Run Kid Run
* The City Harmonic
* Remedy Drive
* Becoming the Archetype
* Andy Mineo
* Aaron Gillespie
* Everyday Sunday
* Abandon Kansas
* Sleeping Giant
* KB
* John Rueben
* The Wedding
* Wolves at the Gate
* Children 18:3
* Jenny & Tyler
* Write This Down
* Love & Death
* One Sonic Society
* These Hearts
* Matt Hammitt
* GoFish
* Silverline
* Stephanie Smith
* Kiros
* Everfound
* Fades Away
* We Are Leo
* Ilia
* Willet
* An Epic No Less
* George Moss
* The Skies Revolt
* Loftland
* Classic Petra
* Broken Walls
* Marah in the Mainsail
* Triple Stitch
* Brandon Reid
* Alan Greene
* Rachelle Hope
* Brian Sumner
* Tom Henderson
* Josh Brewer

### 2011 Festival

Main Stage:
* Relient K
* Tenth Avenue North
* Jeremy Camp
* Sidewalk Prophets
* Britt Nicole
* Manafest
* Hawk Nelson
* Fireflight
* Manic Drive
-Souled Out Stage:
* Disciple
* Blindside
* Write This Down
* Children 18:3
* The Wedding

### 2010 Festival

* Abandon
* BarlowGirl
* Brian "Head" Welch
* Children 18:3
* Colossus
* David Crowder Band
* Day of Fire
* Disciple
* Eric Timm
* Everyday Sunday
* Family Force 5
* From The Eyes Of Servants
* House of Heroes
* John Mark McMillan
* John Reuben
* Kari Jobe
* MercyMe
* Mikeschair
* Parachute Band
* Reilly
* Seabird
* Showbread
* Silverline
* Spoken
* These Hearts
* The Overseer
* Triple Stitch and More
* White Collar Sideshow
* Willet
* Write This Down

### 2009 Festival

A Life Echoed Children 18:3 David Lunsford DecembeRadio Disciple Downhere Esterlyn (band) Everyday Sunday Everfound Family Force 5 FM Static House of Heroes John Reuben Krystal Meyers Kutless Life's Breath Lincoln Brewster Manic Drive Michael Gungor Band Nevertheless Newsboys Remedy Drive Run Kid Run Rush of Fools Sanctus Real Sarah Reeves Seventh Day Slumber Showbread Silverline Spoken Stellar Kart Superchick Thousand Foot Krutch Tenth Avenue North The Switch Kids The Wedding TruEmotion VOTA WILLET

### 2008 Festival

Headliners of the 2008 festival, as announced on Life 96.5, were Switchfoot, Michael W. Smith and Casting Crowns. Other 2008 participating bands included:
33Miles Ayiesha Woods As I Lay Dying Building 429 Day of Fire Everyday Sunday Family Force 5 Grits John Reuben Leeland Lincoln Brewster Matthew West MxPx Natalie Grant Phil Joel Remedy Drive Sanctus Real Seventh Day Slumber Showbread The Afters This Beautiful Republic VOTA

### 2007 Festival

Jars of Clay, TobyMac and Chris Tomlin were announced as the headliners of the 2007 festival.
Other major bands and artists for 2007 included: Anberlin BarlowGirl Big Daddy Weave Casting Pearls Family Force 5 Leeland Tait Phil Joel Project 86 Stellar Kart

### Previous Bands/Speakers

Source:
Audio Adrenaline Casting Crowns Day of Fire Dr. James Dobson FFH GoFish Jeremy Camp Mark Schultz Newsboys Pillar Point of Grace Rebecca St. James Relient K Rick Warren Salvador Sanctus Real Skillet Steven Curtis Chapman Superchick Switchfoot Third Day Thousand Foot Krutch Three Cord Wonder Tree63