Unite at festival around good (Christian) music

Hyper Static Union

Braille

Laura McGreevey

Sons of Day

For the past two summers, the Epiphany in the Park music festival has attracted top-flight Northwest Christian bands to Esther Short Park for a free day-long event. Rapper Braille and Vancouver singer-songwriter Justin Klump have been among the artists to perform at the festival. But economic woes made a third festival impossible.

Festival organizer Ty Christian said that it was difficult to gather donations from local churches. "With the economy, it's hard to be asking churches and individuals to support something like that when they have tight budgets of their own," he said.

In its place, the Common Ground Unite festival offers music fans a full slate of Pacific Northwest Christian artists.

Brent Lunde, the festival's co-organizer, came up with the idea for the festival about three months ago as a way to raise money for the Dare to Live/Common Ground youth ministry. He sought out Christian for advice on how to put together an all-day concert in such a compressed time frame. At the time, he didn't know that Epiphany in the Park wasn't returning this summer. "We just picked up where they left off," Lunde said.

Common Ground Unite attracted several popular regional artists, including Portland group Sons of Day and Hyper Static Union, which got its start in Camas and moved to Nashville, Tenn., in 2006. The band moved back to Clark County later that year and has maintained a local presence ever since, performing at each of the Epiphany in the Park festivals.

Hyper Static Union lead singer and guitarist Shawn Lewis said that the band's set at Common Ground Unite will serve as a de facto release party for its latest album, "Meet Him in the Air." The album has been available on iTunes since January, but demand for a physical copy persuaded Lewis to release a CD. Lewis said that the band will perform several new songs from the CD.

"We're excited to finally get that out there," Lewis said.

Lewis will also perform an acoustic set with his wife, Natasha Lewis. "That's a whole different batch of music that we've crafted to be duets and acoustic-driven," Shawn said. Both will sing, and Shawn will play guitar.

Hyper Static Union's stage presence made it a natural fit for the festival, Lunde said. "They put on a really great show," he said. "They perform some great covers, and their own material is really good."

The other band likely to be a big draw for the concert, Sons of Day, has had a memorable year. The alternative rock group began 2009 by winning the best pop video of the year award for its song "This Place" at the Gospel Music Channel Video Awards.

The rest of the line-up includes the Nathan Arnold Band, Insomniac Folklore, Laura McGreevey, The Neverclaim, The Thirsting, Braille and Sixteen Cities.

Fans looking for a break from live music will have several activities to choose from. An inflatable bounce house and face painting will be offered for children. Prizes such as gift cards, T-shirts and CDs will be given away between sets.

Rib City and Papa Murphy's will be on hand to sell food.

Lunde, who expects up to 4,000 attendees, hopes that the Common Ground Unite festival will one day be mentioned in the same breath as such other Pacific Northwest Christian music festivals as Creation West in the Columbia River Gorge and Tomfest in Camas. The four-day Creation West festival includes performances from Christian artists who have flirted with mainstream success, such as Relient K and Sanctus Real. Meanwhile, Tomfest brings together more than 100 independent Christian artists over the span of four days in Camas.

Lunde says that music fans don't need to have an affinity for Christian music to enjoy the show. "It's not overtly Christian," Lunde said. "Everyone can recognize good music, and they'll be united in the fact that it's good music."