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It’s been a decade since Australia’s last great Christian music festival, Easterfest, closed its gates. Since then, Australia has lost what was a massive catalyst for youth ministry, artist development, and Kingdom culture building. But there are some promising grassroots shooting through… 

In partnership with Australian Christian Records, The Daily Declaration is piloting a monthly Christian music column featuring artist stories, new releases, and local Christian music news. If you have something to contribute then send through to: news@ozchristianrecords.com.au.

Before we get into this month’s story, check out the OZ Top Tunes chart and the latest Christian music releases.

OZ Chart: July, 2025

Compiled each month by Today’s Christian Music (TCM), which has managed Australia’s official Weekly Top 30 Countdown for over 25 years, this new chart, published by Australian Christian Records, exclusively tracks songs from Australian Christian artists in the same way.

Let’s pray this helps bring more attention to our local artists and gives them something extra to aspire towards!

1. Weight of the World – Kate Westwood
2. Worship! – Taya
3. Child of God – Taya
4. Left the 99 – Youth Alive feat. Ethan Beer
5. Did Ya Don’t Worry – Justin Michael

*Compiled by TCM based on Australian Christian radio airplay from the preceding month.

Recommended New Releases

• • Leane! – Let’s Wage War EP (SA) #Rap
  • Nikita – RAPHA (NSW) #Pop
  • Planetboom – Redeemed (VIC) #Rap

You can find more local Christian releases at the Australian Christian Pop Spotify Playlists

Upcoming Events

• Tehillal Worship Festival, July 4–6 (Sunshine Coast)
• Danny Gokey & Svrcina: The Sound of Heaven Australia Tour, July 16–25 (QLD, NSW, VIC & ACT)
• RaveJesus & AndyG: I Met God On The DanceFloor, July 25 (Sydney)

Youth Ministry & Artistry: Building Back a Christian Music Festival Culture

My first big adventure away from home was an interstate trip to Ballarat for Sonfest Music Festival. Invited by my old high school friend, I was 19 years old and didn’t know what I was getting myself into – except that Audio Adrenaline was going to be there.

It’s not an understatement to say that the experience changed my life.

Although moshing up the front to Audio Adrenaline’s ‘Some Kind of Zombie’ is something I remember to this day, the three day camping experience left me with much more than just a good memory. Not only was I introduced to other, great Christian musical artists from Australia and the rest of the world, but I was surrounded with other young Christians my age, and significantly introduced to a church youth group that gave me friendship, direction, hope and encouragement as I entered adulthood.

Some researchers have estimated that up to 75% of professing Christians entering an Australian university will graduate with little or no faith. This being the case, it’s vitally important to build a strong Christian community around our young adults.

As shown by my personal experience, Christian music festivals are clearly one successful way to do this. We see many Christian music festivals all around the world, with notable examples being Big Church Festival in the UK, Winter Jam in the US, and One Music Festival in New Zealand. With the scale a large population can provide, the US takes things one step further with Christian universities that run student radio, and host touring Christian acts.

Of course, Australia previously had Easterfest up until 2015 which at its peak would host up to 30,000 students in Toowoomba. While now just a memory, 96five recently shared some of the hard lessons learnt through that experience with their excellent four part podcast, ‘The Rise & Fall of Easterfest‘.

Suffice to say, one decade on from Easterfest, and the situation for festivals today is even more dire than back then, with rising insurance costs and a comparative disinterest from the COVID teen generation – or is it social anxiety? Even major Australian secular festivals like Groovin the Moo, Splendour in the Grass, and the Good Life Festival have all cancelled their 2025 dates.

With many young Christians leaving the faith soon after adulthood, its important to build a strong Christian community with Kingdom culture.

The good news though is that we can see some solid grassroots shooting through. Youth Alive regularly hosts large youth worship events by state, we’ve previously covered what Paideia is doing in NSW, and organisations like CMAA and Compassion Australia organise tours bringing international Christian artists to our shores.

Despite this great work, what Australia isn’t seeing much of is local artist development. In previous articles we learnt from Australian bands like Compliments of Gus and River Movement how touring and festivals like Easterfest helped launch music careers. Fortunately, we are now seeing some smaller, local festivals stepping up and making a difference. 

Seek Jesus Festival in Victoria’s southeast is one example. Preparing for its third festival this New Year’s Eve, Founder Cate Buchanan explains that she was inspired to start the festival after watching the ‘Jesus Revolution’ movie.

For those that haven’t seen it, the film shows how outdoor music festivals were a big part of the Jesus Revolution outreach in the 1970’s. These festivals brought many thousands of youth and families together and fostered a sense of community within the attendees and artists. In-turn, these artists were influential in creating the culture-redefining ‘Jesus music’ genre which was the forerunner to today’s Christian Contemporary Music (CCM).

A Christian music festival is more than just a good time, they are a unique way to introduce young Australians to Jesus, strengthen their faith, or in my case connect with a Christian support group. They also importantly counter worldly influence, instead creating positive peer pressure and contributing to building a heavenly culture alternative that so many youth are seeking.

Cate shares further,

“Seek Jesus Festival is for young adults who are seeking truth. It’s a fun weekend away with music from a range of artists and it’s all about community, connection and experiencing God.” 

River Movement performing on the main stage at Seek Jesus Festival 2024.

Artist Development & Creating a Christian Music Scene

An important part of SEEK Jesus Festival is the ‘artist-only day’ which is a day of song-writing, connection and fellowship immediately before the festival officially opens.

I’ve witnessed the importance of artist connection first-hand through my work with Heart Song Festival in Adelaide and have seen the start of a South Australian Christian music scene revived through the opportunities that were created when artists came and shared together, birthing countless friendships and collaborations.

Another case in point, is Freedom Music Festival in Gympie, Queensland. Running since 2019, and growing steadily every year since, Festival Director Jacob Waltisbuhl says the festival is a platform for both established and emerging Aussie Christian artists to grow in the gifting God has blessed them with.

“One of my favourite parts in seeing Freedom grow is seeing local artists like Sam Hornshaw and Elizabeth Rae develop their ability and following year after year.“

Evangelism is also a major motivator and the organisers work with the local Christian community in not just providing a good weekend’s entertainment, but also linking new believers back into a local church community. Jacob continues,

“We want to preach the gospel and reach the lost. Helping them see the Freedom that we have in Jesus.”

Evangelism is often a big part of Christian festival culture and it can be an easy and attractive way to introduce non-Christians to the faith.

How to Run a Christian Music Festival?

In researching for this article, I realised there’s no one formula that guarantees a successful Christian music festival in Australia.

Running festivals require significant expenditure for insurance, equipment, artist expenses and more – especially with unpredictable ticket sales making it difficult to plan size and scope. Significant safety and legal regulations need to be followed, which makes a strong backing organisation or alliance a must. They need to believe in the ultimate vision, and not necessarily be expectant of financial profit.

In the case of Freedom Music Festival, they partner with local youth groups and churches, and have the backing of local Christian organisation, Jesus Kings of Kings International, and its own youth ministry, Street Eagles.

Similarly, the organisers of Seek Jesus Festival have the backing of local youth ministry, StreetPeace, which works with disengaged youth and is a part of the festival’s origin story. Another example is NSW’s One Music Festival which in recent years has been run in partnership with Scripture Union.

Another critical ingredient is volunteers. None of the festivals mentioned in this article would have been able to run without people giving their time to ticket the gates, clean, organise, pray, set-up, and of course pack-down!

The final puzzle pieces would be a unified, local Christian community of churches, radio, and other ministries, together with a strong connection to youth hungry for godly entertainment (and possibly more).

Volunteers at Freedom Music Festival. Consider supporting your local Christian music festival through volunteering and spreading the word.

How To Contribute?

So when you hear about your local Christian music festival, please do more than just giving them a like on socials.

There’s a lot you can do to help rebuild the scene in Australia. Support with a ticket for yourself, a friend or your kids; encourage your favourite local artist to apply to perform; offer to volunteer; or connect festival organisers with your church, local youth group or potential sponsor.

… and if you think you would like to start a festival yourself then reach out, as there are plenty of others around Australia with the same idea.

Contact: news@ozchristianrecords.com.au

Freedom Music Festival

Location: Calico Creek, Queensland

Dates: Nov 7–9

Instagram: @freedommusicfestivalaus

Tickets (opening in June): freedommusicfestival.com/tickets

Artist Applications: freedommusicfestival.com/apply

Seek Jesus Festival

Location: Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

Dates: Dec 29–Jan 1

Instagram: @seekjesusfestival

Tickets (opening in June): seekjesus.au/tickets

Artist Applications: seekjesus.au/artists

One Music Festival

Location: Illawarra, NSW

Dates: TBA

Instagram: @onemusicfestival.au

Heart Song Festival

Location: Adelaide, SA

Dates: TBA

Instagram: @heart_song_festival_adelaide

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Images courtesy of Seek Music Festival & Freedom Festival.