Barlow Girl at the AGMF 07 Media Conference

From the inside out -- AGMF 07

Reflections on this year's Australian Gospel Music Festival, in Toowoomba, Queensland.

On Main Stage throbs an international rock band, effortlessly moving in a strange choreography between smoke-machine drenched power pop to testimony and contemporary worship. In the audience, enormous inflatable plastic hands are held high, swaying in the front row, while cameras pan dangerously close to our heads, aiming for the best shots of these well dressed twenty-something rock stars yelling their all for Jesus. Metres away, under the skeletal edges of dark pines, strings of coloured bulbs dim the starlight above and a lone singer/songwriter sings from his heart about his journey and relationship with God. Somewhere in a tent flying silent Aussie flags, a ska band pitches and jangles and a dance DJ pumps out grooves beneath the Big Top.

‘Australian Christian music is finally starting to learn how to communicate properly’, declares a Christian media professional, as he sees the lights flicker from the mainstage. Is it good communication, or perhaps just audience manipulation, I wonder? 'No, it all justifies the means if for one moment drops of something greater are allowed into the lives of the audience,' he argues. Even when the audience have been induced into an emotional trip of rock stadium theatre? Absolutely. Is this evangelism, or propaganda? I don't know, but I can't help thinking of the Nuremberg rallies and other such masterpieces of ideological theatre. Surely that was effective communication too...

Ah, questions, questions -- but how important is it to question such things, in this literal space where listeners, mosh pit freaks, artists (‘emerging’ and mature, of all genres) radio pluggers and label ‘execs’ alike get to spark and speak, and try to navigate through this strange ocean of creatures that are all in some way affiliated with what is broadly termed ‘the Christian music industry’...

Perhaps the biggest wonder of AGMF is just that -- it is big. Tens of thousands of people come to listen, hundreds audition to play, and there are the many more who tune into radio broadcasts, chat on the web forums, or who read about it in other media. And it is not only big, but people actually seem to be getting along with each other. There were no little circlets of ‘ins’ and doleful ‘outs’, but people enjoying the interwoven aspects of diversity and community. Press conferences were relaxed, there was rain more associated with Victorian folk festivals, and a ‘camping’ feel that made even strangers say hi and apologise for bumping into you.

And with numbers officially lower than previous years, the challenge organisers faced was: did this really matter? Was it more about the quality and connection than finances? To their credit, the answer was a confident yes, so it will be interesting and exciting to see where future festivals take this unique Australian gathering.

Toowoomba feels like a very long way from the rest of Australia -- which it is when you have come all the way from Melbourne -- but it is one of its kind, and happens with a passion and focus which is lacking in so much of what is termed ‘Christian Arts’ in this country. Wherever we see creative ideas tackled with so much professionalism and focus we need to support it. So if you didn’t go this year, go in 2008. And if you went, go again. The dialogue needs to continue, the relationships one with another are only beginning to be built. There should be many more such gatherings all over our country, so let’s get behind this one and inspire others to build their own.

And maybe, one happy and exciting day, Christian musicians will no longer be debating whether they are Christian musicians or musicians who are Christians, but simply critiquing and applauding each other’s work, and discussing their Art with all the vigour and intellectual focus of true journeymen (and women) who travel the uncharted pathways of the Arts...