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A Christian carnival show

Day One of the Luis Palau Tampa Bay Festival draws a crowd despite rainy, cold weather.

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published March 4, 2007

TAMPA - Who said Christians don't rock?

Amanda Seaver, 22, of Tampa and her Mohawk-wearing, body-pierced boyfriend Joshua Handley were ready to rock out with Christian band P.O.D. at the Luis Palau Tampa Bay Festival on Saturday.

"I may be a Christian and all, but rock 'n' roll is what I'm about," she said.

Seaver, Handley and thousands of others gathered at the Raymond James Stadium grounds for "Great music & Good News" at the free offbeat evangelistic affair where Tony Dungy was a special guest and artists like TobyMac and Mandisa from American Idol were scheduled to perform.

But most folks didn't come out just for the music.

Despite the rain and temperatures hovering in the mid 50s, they came to glorify Jesus and mix and mingle in a Christian atmosphere.

Sitting bundled in a jacket, hat and blankets on a foldup chair was Lori Coleman of Lakeland.

Coleman came with her husband, Mark, and daughter, Shayla.

"We're Christians, so whenever things like this come to our area, we're there," Coleman said with a smile.

Saturday's opening festivities were a long time coming for the Colemans. They are originally from New England, where their church helped sponsor a Palau festival, but the family moved to Florida before it came to town.

Dozens of local businesses and 550 area churches helped fund the it, said festival spokesman Craig Chastain, and 10,000 volunteers helped man it.

"We only do two or three a year in the U.S. and we've been working on this one in Tampa for close to three years," he said.

An evangelist for more than 40 years, Luis Palau also holds Christian festivals in Europe, the South Pacific and Central and South America as a hip and family-friendly way to spread the Gospel of Jesus.

Palau's ministry morphed from a crusade model patterned after Billy Graham, which usually has a speaker and a choir in a contained setting, to the festival model where Palau addresses the audience but also has extreme sports and contemporary music, said Chastain.

"We want to do as Jesus did; go where the people are and reach them face to face," Chastain said.

The celebration is akin to a carnival.

Motorcyclists performed sky-high jumps, flipping and twisting in midair. Then they gave testimonials of deliverance from sin.

Dozens of vendors hawked such treats as frankfurters, Philly cheesesteaks, turkey legs and funnel cakes.

Gospel music blared from speakers.

Teenagers threw footballs on an open field and skateboarded on sidewalks while church groups handed out fliers.

"We found that as the general population got a little younger that the culture was more tuned to a contemporary style, so we started adding these components," Chastain said.

The update worked well for festivalgoer Seaver.

"Everywhere you go around here you can almost feel the love in the atmosphere," she said.

John Gainer, 3, squealed and smiled as he pointed at life-sized versions of Larry the cucumber and Bob the tomato from the hit Christian cartoon VeggieTales.

"It is possible for fun and faith to mix, you know," said John's aunt, Jaime Davis of Tampa, who was there with her sister, Jessica Gainer, and Gainer's other son, Dustyn, 4.

The family came on Saturday because today they'll be in church most of the day.

Davis goes to Brown's Memorial Church of God in Christ.

The Gainers go to Living Faith Assembly of God, which brought a group of more than 20 young people to the festival.

As the afternoon became evening, the breeze blew harder and rain fell.

As the skies started threatening early Saturday afternoon, Bartow resident Shannon Benton decided it was time to go with her two sons, Trey, 7, and Tyler, 8.

"We didn't know it was going to be so cold," she said.

"Mom, can we come back tomorrow?" asked Tyler. "It'll be my birthday."

"If it's not too cold, we'll come back," Benton said.

Amber Mobley can be reached at amobley@sptimes.com or 813 269-5311.

Today

The Luis Palau Tampa Bay Festival continues today at Raymond James Stadium from noon until 10 p.m. For more information, go to www.tampabayfestival.com or call (813) 579-1560.

Noon

A prefestival hip-hop and rock concert runs from noon until 1 p.m.

1 p.m.

The main festival venues - live action sports, food court, community care area and the VeggieTales kids area - open.

4:30 p.m.

Musical performances by Kirk Franklin, Wynonna Judd, Chris Tomlin, BarlowGirl and Yuri are scheduled to begin.

[Last modified March 4, 2007, 00:18:32]