Ichthus Music Festival
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The Ichthus Music Festival is an annual American Christian music festival. It was created in response to the Woodstock music festival.
[edit] History
- In 1969, Dr. Bob Lyon, a seminary professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, and some of his students began creating the Ichthus Music Festival, in reply to the Woodstock music festival in New York in 1969. They wanted to offer an alternative lifestyle for youths to partake in.
- The Ichthus Music Festival has been running on a yearly basis in Wilmore, Kentucky since May 9, 1970, making it the longest running Christian music festival in the United States of America.
- In 1975, Ichthus branched off from the Christian Services Brotherhood organization and became its own non-profit cooperation. Their name became the Ichthus Ministries Inc.
- Up until 1996, the festival had been running solely based on volunteer work. In 1996, Ichthus Ministries hired their first full-time executive director, Gary Baker. Nonetheless, volunteers are still needed in the present day's Ichthus festival.
- In 1997, Ichthus Ministries' lease expired, so they bought a new 111 acre farm four miles away to replace their old location. The new farm was still in Wilmore, Kentucky.
- 1999 was the first year in which the festival was held at the new farm.
- In 2003, Ichthus Ministries started up their first full-time management team under the direction of Gary Baker.
- Shortly after this event, in 2004, the founder of Ichthus, Dr. Bob Lyon, passed away.
- In 2005, Ichthus Ministries decided to begin an Ichthus Tour program. These tours are used to promote the music festival, but are also intended to bring together churches and communities.
- In 2006, after the very cold weather in 2005, ichthus decided to move the date from April to June.
[edit] Origin of the festival's name
The name of the festival is taken from the word Ichthus, an anagram in Biblical Greek used since the second century by Christians as a symbol of their religion. The word is composed of the letters ἸΧΘΥΣ, meaning fish. The individual letters make up a confessional statement of Christians, "Jesus Christ Son of God, Savior":
