Broken Chains Festival 2008!

Between Friday 23rd May and Sunday 25th, the first ever Broken Chains Festival took place in my little home village of Tonyrefail. It was great to see it actually happening after all those months of hard work that everyone put into organising it... Andrew especially! It was a big vision for such a small mining town, many did not believe we could pull it off, but there were those who kept the faith and saw it develop from just an idea into a massive success.


The weekend (which was completely FREE I might add) kicked off with a Christian rock concert on the Friday night, where the likes of YFriday, Electralyte and OneHundredHours were performing. There is no words to describe the feeling I had when I walked out from backstage to see approximately 2,000 teens and twenties jumping with their hands in the air and having a genuinely good time. You might be thinking "well it was a rock concert, that's what happens, it's not strange to see people jumping up and down". Let me explain... It was a Christian rock festival and the majority of people there were not Christians. Now I don't know if this is the same in other places but it is certainly true of my town, that whenever a Christian organisation puts on an event, it is either a) extremely poorly attended, or b) if people decide to turn up they certainly make sure they don't "look" as if they are having a good time. Because we're all bible-bashers and it would look very uncool infront of their friends if they were singing along to Christian songs. Catching my drift? Anyway enough of me waffling on, here's some amazing pics taken by my brother and the rest can be found at the Broken Chains Festival website.

























All day Saturday was a carnival/fete/family day with lots of different shows, workshops and rides for the children. Unfortunately I was working all day so could not attend, but from the pics it seems that a good time was had by all.















And of course not forgetting Terl Bryant and the Psalm Drummers who put on a drum workshop during the day and a concert for all us lucky people in the night. Seriously these people need to be heard to be believed. I have NEVER heard drumming like it in my entire life!















And finally, the festival concluded with a Sunday morning Communion service which was well attended by the local churches. Worship was led by the Tim Bannister Trio from Cardiff. And thus the adventure had come to an end. All those months of planning and it was over before we knew it! Roll on Broken Chains Festival 2009 I say anyway!







Finally, this blog wouldn't be complete without a pic of the man himself... Pastor Andrew Butcher. What an amazing guy. He birthed the vision of this festival and carried it right through until the very end. Even during the times when it looked like the festival would not go ahead, he kept the faith and trusted God in everything. Fantastic job Andrew!