East Alabama's Biggest Music Festival was fantastic! 

Ignite '11 was a great event. There were over 8,000 in attendance, I have never seen the field so packed. I had a multi-colored umbrella perched next to my 5 chairs near the cross in the middle of the walking track on US 78 in Pell City. Everyone walked past me at least once, and most people came back time and time again. The sound tent was in front of me, though I could see around it, but I stayed because it was so fitting that the speakers were angled so that the best place acoustically was at the foot of the cross, right where my bad feet forced me to stay.

Those that know me know that this is not where I usually am, or where I wanted to be (not at the foot of the cross, I mean sitting still the whole time). The pain in my feet hit me bad the night before during the pre-event worship and prayer session. On any given other Ignite event you could find me everywhere all at once. I like to shore up cracks and be Jonathan-on-the-spot. Of course, as years go by, it seems they practically run themselves (not that I'm the guy to say that this year).

The performance of the day was ShonLock. His showmanship, stage presence, and actions were top-notch. A friend and I commented before he started playing that we were not fans of his music or his style. Halfway through the show we were both eating our words. At the end of the show we had been treated to THE best performance that has ever been put on at Ignite. I tweeted several times during his show, incredulous that any one man, or one band, could have such a high intensity, adrenaline packed performance. Afterwords I told him as much. This is a man on a mission, and on the commission.

The video link is from ShonLock's Monsta Monday series. It shows them hanging out on Pell City's year-round attraction and then a bit of the show. It is a shadow of the incredible performance.

Let's not leave out the other performers. The Homecoming had a homecoming, being the first repeat performer coming all the way from Ohio. Finding Favour did an incredible job, and even pulled off an encore. 33Miles was great. Another band that earned a fan was Act of Congress, incredibly talented group. Followthrough was also good, and someone will tell me the name of the band I missed (I hope). Don't get me wrong, these were all great acts, and worth the price of the gas to get to the show (since admission was free), ShonLock just stole the show.

Kerry and Kenny did a fantastic job putting in hour after hour to make it again a great festival. And I don't want to leave anyone out, but Chris was there, JJ was there, Justin, Jeff, Jason, and then there's the women of Ignite, Amy in particular. Every time I asked Kerry what he needed leading up to the event he said, "Ask Kenny, he's in charge of that." What did Kenny say? What else, "Amy has that, talk to her."

Last year JJ and I talked about a fund-raising event. This year, I'm writing it here to put my feet to the fire; we need to pull the plug and do that one. It's going to go down. Ignite'11 was bigger and better, but Ignite'12 will really show East Alabama what a day of music and fun are all about.

• Monsta Monday  http://bit.ly/qU84OR
• My earlier Ignite Post http://byrdmouse.com/2011/07/ignite-2011/
• Ignite Website http://bit.ly/Ignite2011

~~~~~~~~~~~ Update: Fixed a comma splice, those things bug me.