Let me first just say that my taste in music has changed quite a bit since this last trip, I still am into a little bit of Hardcore, but I furthermore enjoy Metal a lot more. Sorry I have no pictures, I’ll have to ask my sister if she has anything, I was able to find some youtube footage of some choice shows, enjoy.

CORNERSTONE Music Festival

Well, we left on Monday (7/3/00) at around 3:00 PM. The drive there seemed to take forever! But during the drive there me and the other people driving with us found ways to pass time, we wrote a REALLY long Cipher and just talked and acted crazy!

But we finally made it to Cornerstone at around 10:30 PM … but we didn’t actually make it inside till around 11:15 PM! There were literally 100’s of cars in line to get inside of the place, but we got in OK. When we found a decent place to camp, we got all of our junk from the van, and everything was moving smoothly up until we found out that we were missing poles for our large tent, which was going to be the abode for my two friends and me! so we ghetto rigged it and tied rope from both sides of it, and it worked pretty well. That night we met are neighbors, which were a HUGE blessing on us, mainly because we forgot to bring pretty much everything we needed. Anyway, when the night was all done and over, I sat in the tent and talked with Steven and Joe (two friends that came), and we did that for about an hour. That night I couldn’t get to sleep at all! It was horrible. So, I pretty much stayed up all night long.

The next morning Tuesday (7/4/00). Steven and I went out to find friends from back in town, and we eventually did. I was pretty surprised, anyway we chilled and talked with them for a little while, and Steve and I then decided to go back to our camp place and get the other people, because there were making plans to go get more food and supplies. So, when they did that me and Joe went out to go watch some concerts for Tooth and Nail Day. The first concert we watched was Luti-Kriss for that one we just watched what we could from outside of the tent, this one was played at Encore 1, and overall, it was pretty good, nothing to get bored over, but nothing to get excited over either. After that we went back to our campsite, to see if anyone got back, and nobody did. So, we just chilled for a little bit and found out that our neighbor that was doing most of the holding up for our tent was leaving so we had to take our tent down and put it all away. For most of the day, Joe and me just went around checking out all of the main attractions, I think I walked 10 miles that day! Well, later on I met up with my sister and her boyfriend, so we checked out some stuff, and did some things in between, like look at the merchandise tents and just looked around some more. While in the merchandise tent we got hit with a huge rain storm, so on our way out we went to go see if anyone was playing so we watched Third Root, wasn’t exactly my favorite but it got us out of the rain, and it was a pretty hardcore show, and the lead singer seemed to be very into God, and throughout the show you could tell from his strong message! But, after that we saw the concert of all concerts Spitfire! This was my second favorite concert of the whole time being there! The lead singer was moving around the stage like mad and just getting the crowd really hyped it was awesome! And I can only pray that the pictures I took were taken, because this was one awesome show! After all we did a whole lot of nothing, but I had a lot to talk about after watching spitfire. That night we configured ourselves me, Steven and Joe slept in the van. That night I slept like a baby!

Wednesday (7/5/00) Well, I’m having a hard time recalling what exactly I did from here on out, but if I remember correcting this was when we went to go see hip hop! Well, I’ve kind of turned myself away from hip hop and rap, but I can honestly say this was an awesome display! Probably the biggest attraction was John Ruben (Hope I spelled that right) he got the crowd hyped! It was a small show up of people to begin with, but he was awesome! Anyway, I got to see/hear a couple songs from him, and then I got to watch another hip hopper do a freestyle with a very talented guy by the name of Daedalus Perihelion that was an awesome little show of talent. After that, there were some guys throwing down some stuff, but I was too interested at watching the break dancing at the time! That was awesome, and it honestly made you want to get into it or make a fool out of yourself right then and there. Well, after all that then came up a guy, which might I add made very good friends with my sister’s boyfriend. Anyway, he worked the turntables, and goes by the name of DJ SkillSpins err whatever his name is! Anyway, he did some pretty awesome stuff. As it got later the place got packed with people! I was a bit angry cause of that, but it was pretty straight non-the less. But this was also when my friend Steven got up there and did a freestyle rap right up on the stage! I was amazed that he got up there and did his thing. It was awesome! Well, that pretty much concludes Wednesday.

Next comes Thursday (7/6/00) this day I didn’t really do much. I pretty much hung out with Joe and went swimming all day, as it was extremely hot during the day! Anyway, it was just a relax day. But towards the night, I was completely bummed out, because I missed OVERCOME play!!! I was so angry cause of that! But something so surprising certainly made up for it. It was none other than by far my favorite performance … Zao! This show was so awesome! Man, I cannot tell you how much fun I had at this show. I was literally screaming word for word the lyrics to each song, and moshing with the other crazed fans … it was awesome! and was certainly my most memorable experience at Cornerstone! oh, and I forgot to mention I saw an awesome show from Anguish Unsaid which played right before Zao. They did an awesome performance, and really proclaimed the glory of God, in their performance. And that pretty much summed up that day.

Next brings Friday (7/7/00) this was another hang out day, just chilled at my camp site and talked with the people that came with us, and our neighbors. Later on in the night we made our way towards the main stage. First, I saw Blindside, which was pretty disappointing, but I never really was a die-hard fan to begin with. Next, I saw Living Sacrifice, which was an awesome show! but I couldn’t really enjoy it, because I had a lot of stuff on my mind during the time I was there. (apparently Steve wanted to beat my ass and trtied to get me into the pit to fight him) Anyway, probably the main course for most Cornerstoners was the P.O.D. show! This was awesome. Not that I’m really a huge fan of POD, it still was an awesome show! But something went terribly wrong! yup, two people in the crowd towards the front of the crowd got really hurt and suffered from broken arms and legs (I think). Anyway, during this it was so awesome, and words can’t even explain what went on there, but the lead singer Sonny, just stopped! And kneeled over the crowd at the end of the stage, and just broke out a solid silence. After this, people in the crowd started singing praise and worship … and man did that send Goosebumps up and down my spine. Well, that was pretty much all that went down on Friday. Oh, and not to mention the awesome display of fireworks!

Well, Saturday (5/8/00) was when we all packed up and went home … and although I missed Cornerstone, I was ready to go home. I would suggest ALL believers and non-believers to check out Cornerstone, but if you’re going to go, PLEASE go with a clear positive and open mind. And just to point out, this isn’t squat! as to EVERYTHING that happened at Cornerstone, this was just about everything I could remember. For more information and insight, I suggest you check out the official page over HERE.