Junction 1 expected as Britians biggest Christian music festival

WHAT PROMISES to be Britain's biggest Christian music festival has been announced. Junction 1 has the backing of Word Music, Alliance Music and leading Christian retailer Wesley Owen, and will take place on August bank holiday weekend, at Hillingdon, West London. The Oasis Trust and Evangelical Alliance are partnering with the Christian record companies for the 25-28 August event, and many of the biggest names in Christian music including Michael W Smith, the Newsboys, Rebecca St James, the World Wide Message Tribe, All Star United, Jars Of Clay and Phatfish are currently in discussion with Junction 1. As well as an international music programme, other activities on site will include bungee jumping, dry ski slope skiing, a resources superstore and a backstage zone for everyone. Said Duncan Banks, programme director for Junction 1, "Jl is a pure music festival. Wall to wall tunes, bands, dance and trax. Its aim is clear - to help disciple young people through the medium of contemporary Christian music. I don't think the Christian music scene has ever been so exciting as it is now, and this festival will be a showcase of the very best on the planet."
Sense, a music-based discipleship programme, will form an integral part of Junction 1. Sense uses music and multimedia "to help a generation who have grown up with the Spice Girls, Loaded magazine, South Park and TFI Friday to make life work." Nigel Saunders for Junction 1 commented, "The festival is aimed at young Christians and youth group leaders throughout the UK. The style will be eclectic to reflect the ever changing face of contemporary Christian music, incorporating pop, gospel, jazz, R&B, rock, dance and just about every other genre you hear on radio and TV everyday."
A wave of criticism about the dates chosen for Junction 1 has been made by supporters of Britain's longest running Christian arts festival Greenbelt, which has long established the August bank holiday event as the time of its event. Said Greenbelt's administrator Andy Thornton, "When we heard about the dates we wrote to Junction l's organisers asking them not to put on the event the same weekend as Greenbelt. But they refused, saying that they believed that this event had a distinctly different constituency from Greenbelt. We obviously don't believe that and we find the decision quite sad. It feels like quite a divisive move. We made big efforts, like our link with Spring Harvest, to build with the evangelical Church, but this decision is transparently competitive and in terms of Church unity we find it intensely discouraging. I believe Greenbelt will continue but the decision to run Junction 1 on that weekend shows that the evangelical Church can still be very separatist."