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Photojournalist Stephanie Keith's first Christian rock show was in 2002, when she walked into a Kansas City coffeehouse and saw a punk band playing staunchly Christian tunes. "It seemed like such a contradiction in terms," she says, remembering the incongruity between the band's brash sound and its intensely Christian message. Over four years, Keith attended dozens of major Christian rock festivals -- including the New Hampshire's Soul Festival, Pennsylvania's Creation Festival, New Jersey's Autumn Blaze event and Virginia's Acquire the Fire fest -- many of which showcase the abundance of Christian punk, emo and hardcore bands. The twelve photographs that follow capture what she witnessed within the tight-knit world of Christian youth culture -- from the prayer tent to the merch table, to the front row.
[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
Mt. Union, Pennsylvania, July 2nd, 2005. Teens enjoy a band at the Creation Festival, one of the largest Christian rock events in the country, which lasts four days and draws upwards of 80,000 people. Stephanie Keith: "[The bands'] direct focus is to get people into worship mode -- putting their hands up in the air and swaying and getting into God."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
A prayer tent at the Christian rock festival Autumn Blaze in Zaraphath, New Jersey, September 2002. Autumn Blaze draws an average of 14,000 kids every year, making it one of the largest youth events in the New York metropolitan area.
SK: "There's always a prayer tent that is staffed by older people who are trying to get the kids to come in and pray with them. If, at some point, you get filled with the spirit, then you can have the outlet of going to the prayer tent."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
A concertgoer is overcome by emotion at SoulFest, in Gilford, New Hampshire, July 2002.
SK: "People get really, really into it and they'll fall on the floor and pass out. The term they use is 'extreme worship' -- they're just so overcome with love of Jesus that they can't believe his power. It is eerie. They get that ecstatic drug sort of feeling."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
A teenager is baptized by youth volunteers in a pond at the Creation Festival, July 2nd, 2005.
SK: "The entire festival might stop so they can have a baptism ceremony at the little pond they have in the woods. When people get baptized, it's a very, very emotional scene. People are crying, crying, crying."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
Katie Gardner, 16, rocks out to a Christian band with her church's youth group at Watsonville, Pennsylvania's Summerfest, July 14th, 2006. Around her neck, Gardner wears a "heartagram" -- a hybrid of the heart symbol and the pagan pentagram.
SK: "She's probably totally unaware of what [the heartagram] means. I remember looking at her jewelry and thinking that item looked weird to me, especially the cross in the coffin."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
Prayer at the Autumn Blaze festival, September 2002.
SK: "[The teens] don't dance. They just emote. They used to do these things called 'slam circles,' which is basically like moshing, but the church leaders are totally not into moshing, and they had a big clampdown on it. Now if anyone even tries to mosh at all, they come in and take the kid out of the concert area."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
Inside a merch tent at the Creation Festival in Mt. Union, Pennsylvania, on July 2nd, 2005. A girl shops for merchandise with her mother.
SK: "As everything is getting more mainstream, I think the fashions are too. Some of the girls...man, when you go to Creation, you're like, 'Dang, how do these boys focus on the message?' The Christian girls are hot and they don't mind showing it either."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
A girl is filled with the spirit while watching a local praise and worship band at the New Earth Coffee House in Kansas City, February 2002.
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
Young worshippers support a girl overcome with the rapture at Hampton, Virginia's Acquire the Fire event, January 30th, 2003. The fest is the brainchild of Texas evangelical minister Ron Luce, who also helms the quasi-political Battle Cry initiative, a youth group devoted to protesting the depiction of un-Christian ethics in the media. Luce also oversees the Texas-based Honor Academy, a training camp for teens and young adults intent on entering the youth ministry.
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
Teens ring in the new year watching a popular praise and worship band at Winterfest, held at evangelical minister Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, 2003. The annual fest is designed to attract potential students and raise funds for the university. It draws an average of 10,000 people, charging $150 a ticket. Founded by Falwell in 1971, Liberty U currently boasts an enrollment of 9,558 residential students. This past spring, Senator John McCain addressed Liberty's 2006 graduating class -- a contentious decision that many considered a scheme to gain support from the extreme right before the 2008 elections.
SK: "Jerry Falwell is the sponsor, and he spoke at the event. All the kids were like, 'Jerry! Jerry!' They love him."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
Christian teens listen to the popular Christian band PAX217 at Lewisberry, Pennsylvania's Ski Fest, March 2003.
SK: "The target audience is high-school-aged kids. What funnels the kids into the concerts a lot are Christian youth groups. They'll have some charismatic church group leader and they'll rent a church bus and bring all the kids to the concert."
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[Photo by Stephanie Keith]
A fan at Virginia's Acquire the Fire event, January 30th, 2003.
SK: "Jesus is their personal savior. He's almost alive to them."