Parachute music festival

Old Mainstage at The Parachute Music Festival.

The Parachute Music Festival is a Christian music festival held annually at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand.The festival is run by Parachute Music and lasts for four days and three nights. 'Parachute' is the Southern Hemisphere's largest Christian music festival, primarily featuring music and guest speakers. The festival is also one of the largest multi-day festivals in the Southern Hemisphere overall. It is usually held in the week Auckland Anniversary Day falls on,^[1] usually in late January.

About

Parachute Festival annually attracts around 25,000 people. The largest crowd came in 2007, with 27,813 attendees. Most people who attend stay on-site in tents and caravans, and a large village area supplies food, amenities and band merchandise.^[2]

Over 100 bands from many different genres play at Parachute each year and the festival is aimed at a wide demographic ranging from families to teenagers. It is classified as a non-denominational Christian event, with enforced bans on drugs or alcohol and unmarried couples being discouraged from tenting together. However, a large percentage of non-Christian people do attend.

The Festival is covered by most news & radio stations in New Zealand and is quite a well known event of the New Zealand summer. It has also been sponsored by, and is in partnerships with a number of organisations - Some examples are Coca-Cola, Sanitarium, V, Pepsi, Vodafone and The NZ Police.

Parachute is often in partnerships with many charities, for example World Vision. Parachute Music have been working with World Vision since 2006 to sponsor a village in Rwanda called Tubehoneza. Over the last five festivals, festival-goers have donated $265,000 to the area. This money has been used to build five water tanks, three classrooms, a maternity unit and a health centre for Tubehoneza. Also through the festival 1,900 children have been sponsored.^[3]

The festival is a non-denominational Christian festival, meaning that events such as Catholic Mass & Anglican Eucharist take place over the weekend.

History

In 1989 a small festival named 'Mainstage' was held on a farm near Otaki which was run by 'Parachute Productions.' In 1992 the first 'Parachute Music Festival' was staged at El Rancho Christian Holiday Camp, Waikanae. In 1995 the festival moved north to a larger venue at Totara Springs Christian Centre, Matamata. The most recent move was in 2004, to the Mystery Creek Events Centre, just outside Hamilton.^[4] In 2008 Parachute Music signed a contract with Mystery Creek Events Centre to keep the festival at the venue for five more years. The lease will expire after the 2013 festival, after this Parachute will either re-sign with Mystery Creek or look for a new venue. ^[5]

Stages

As of the 2012 Festival the stages are:^[6]

• Mainstage
• Palladium
• Deluxe
• The Apollo

Other Venues

• The Seminar Space - Holds seminars and speaker segments. It is also the venue which holds events such as Catholic mass.
• Noise Venue - This stage hosts Parachute Music's Noise programme & The Parachute's Got Talent auditions

Former Stages

In the past the festival has had up to 9 Stages running at the Mystery Creek site. Former Stages include:

• Debut Stage - In 2010 the Debut Stage was replaced and changed to The Apollo.
• The Dome - In 2010 The Dome was demolished by Mystery Creek Events Centre.
• Massive - This stage hosted mostly dance crews, R&B and hip-hop artists. Massive was integrated into the Palladium stage programme for the 2012 festival.
• The Hangar/White Elephant - This stage was the home to acoustic performances and was integrated into the Deluxe stage programme from 2012.

Various other stages have appeared at festival in the past. A notable stage was 'The Cage,' which was run when the festival was hosted in Matamata.

At the 2000 and 2001 Parachute Festivals there was also a separate 'festival within a festival' dedicated to electronic and dance music in its various forms. This N'Dorphin Village was created by members of Dance Generation and featured continuous DJing and live electronica acts, along with urban dance culture elements such as break dancing performances and live Hip Hop.

Parachute Festival's Mainstage is often given a new look and in 2009 Parachute Music bought in a completely new Mainstage for the festival. The Mainstage used from 2009 till 2011 is New Zealand's largest concert stage.^[7] The 2012 festival saw a new look Mainstage brought in once again.

Other Attractions

The Lunch crowd in the Village food stall area.

Events/Attractions that usually take place at Parachute:

• Amusement rides, Inflatables & Carnival Games
• Water Slide
• Paintball
• Kids Programme
• Skatepark
• Market shopping at 'The Village'
• Punters vs international artist competitions - There have been Cook off's, Volleyball, Cricket and more.
• Parachutes Got Talent competition
• A type of party, each year the theme may change. For example - An 80s Party, Barn Dance, Silent Disco
• Noise, a collection of seminars/workshops from international and local artists on music and performance, with some seminars and workshops focusing more on the technical (production) side of performances

Headline acts

The 2010 Parachute Festival Mainstage in the Late Afternoon before main headliners at night.

Although Parachute Festival has been around since 1991^[8] the first international headliner performed in 1995

• 1995: dc talk
• 1996: Newsboys
• 1997: Newsboys
• 1998: Jars of Clay, All Star United, Margaret Becker, MIC
• 1999: Delirious?, All Star United, Five Iron Frenzy, JC Culture
• 2000: Delirious?, Mike Tait, Pete Stewart, MIC
• 2001: Third Day, Audio Adrenaline, Earthsuit, Newsboys, Raze
• 2002: Delirious?, The O.C. Supertones, Paul Colman Trio, Earthsuit, Skillet
• 2003: Toby Mac, Out of Eden, Superchick, Andy Hunter, Tree63, Pillar
• 2004: Newsboys, Relient K, Christafari, The Tribe (Formally The World Wide Message Tribe), Pillar, Paul Colman Trio, Magnify, Darlene Zschech, Hillsong United
• 2005: Third Day, Audio Adrenaline, Grits, Day of Fire, Shawn McDonald, Hillsong United, Ben Lummis, Magnify, Jeff Deyo (formerly of SONICFLOOd)
• 2006: Anberlin, Delirious?, Day of Fire, The Valley, Planetshakers, Reuben Morgan & Band
• 2007: Third Day, Thousand Foot Krutch, Rebecca St James, Shawn McDonald, Darlene Zschech, Dave Dobbyn, Falling Up, Run Kid Run, The Valley, Spacifix, Nesian Mystik
• 2008: Switchfoot, Israel Houghton & New Breed, Leigh Nash, RED, Jonezetta
• 2009: Family Force 5, David Crowder Band, Casting Crowns, Parachute Band, Kutless, Rapture Ruckus^[9]
• 2010: Switchfoot, Underoath, Hillsong United, Leeland, Family Force 5, Newworldson, Falling Up, Manafest, Parachute Band, Rapture Ruckus^[10]
• 2011: Chris Tomlin, Skillet, Brian 'Head' Welch, Newworldson, Stan Walker, Seabird, Parachute Band, Rapture Ruckus, Manafest, Elemeno P
• 2012: Casting Crowns, Parachute Band, Relient K, The Almost, Desperation Band, Showbread, The Rocket Summer, Ascend The Hill, Randy Stonehill, Avalanche City, The Chariot, Aaron Gillespie
• 2013: Newsboys and Switchfoot were both confirmed at Parachute 2012 to be Headliners at the 2013 festival.

Popular local bands that have regularly played at Parachute in the past include Mumsdollar, Steriogram, The Lads, Brooke Fraser, Rapture Ruckus, juliagrace, Kingston, Late 80's Mercedes, The Glory Sea, Arms Reach, Form and Parachute's own Parachute Band. Representing dance and electronic music over the years have been DJs and MCs including Andy Hunter, Tim Richards, Andy Pulzar, Dr Siminz, Paul Spain/MC Preacher Boy and DJ U-gene.

Cancellations

• Hawk Nelson were scheduled to play in 2007 and 2008 but double bookings prevented them from making it.
• Flyleaf were scheduled to play in 2011 but due to a band member's pregnancy, they had to pull out of the festival. Elemeno P replaced Flyleaf which caused some controversy over Elemeno P not being 'Christian' enough.^[11]

Speakers

The Key speakers at Parachute since 1993.

• 1993: John Smith, Trevor Yaxley
• 1994: John Smith, Trevor Yaxley
• 1995: John Smith, Tome Sine
• 1996: Frank Wilson, Bunny Wilson, Geoff Bullock
• 1997: Glenn Kaiser, Paul Aldrich
• 1998: Brian Houston, Glenn & Wendi Kaiser
• 1999: Phil Pringle, Sy Rodgers, Bobbie Houston, David Pearce
• 2000: Tony Campolo, Sy Rodgers
• 2001: Johnny Lee Clary, Pat Mesiti, John & Helen Burns, Sy Rodgers
• 2002: Darrell Scott, John & Helen Burns, Brian Houston
• 2003: Tony Campolo, Sy Rogers, John & Helen Burns, Shirley Carpenter
• 2004: Christine Caine, Phil Baker, Nancy Alcorn, John & Helen Burns
• 2005: Christine Caine, Wayne Alcorn, Rich Stearns, Winkie Pratney
• 2006: Greg Laurie, Wayne Alcorn, Phil Baker
• 2007: Joyce Meyer, Christine Caine, Jurgen Matthesius
• 2008: Reggie Dabbs, Tony Campolo, Charlotte Scanlon-Gamble
• 2009: Brian Houston, Tim Costello, Chris Hill, John Burns
• 2010: Mike Pilavachi, Matt Fielder, Paul de Jong
• 2011: Louie Giglio, Brian 'Head' Welch, John Cameron
• 2012: Darlene Zschech, Tim Costello^[12]

External links

• Parachute Music
• Parachute Festival's Website

References

1. ^ http://ripitup.co.nz/topic/parachute-music-festival/684
2. ^ "Parachute Music Festival". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/parachute-music-festival/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1500869. Retrieved 1 November 2011. 
3. ^ http://festival.parachutemusic.com/causes/world-vision
4. ^ http://www.parachutemusic.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=76
5. ^ http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/entertainment/6286569/Music-festival-competition-fierce
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ http://www.camelspace.com/product_detail.php?product=parachute#photos
8. ^ Parachute Music, About, Departments
9. ^ http://www.parachutemusic.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=194&Itemid=30
10. ^ http://www.parachutemusic.com/news/local-news/413-parachute-2010-line-up
11. ^ "Elemeno P not Christian enough for Parachute?". One News. 26 January 2011. http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/elemeno-p-not-christian-enough-parachute-4007983. Retrieved 1 November 2011. 
12. ^ http://festival.parachutemusic.com/lineup/speakers