As promised, here’s a status report on the Cornerstone 2007 Dance Club. First, let me say thank you for being patient about all of this. Every year there is some kind of drama around this one event. We all love it and look forward to it. This year is no different. Second, despite the fact that this is the official word, it is also not the FINAL word. We’ve got a LONG way to go yet. So, let’s get to it. I’ll break this down as quickly as I can.

• The Underground, specifically Chris Human, has decided to focus their efforts on the rock scene this year rather than the dance scene. The Underground has not had a dance related event in some time now so it really doesn’t add anything to their focus. They also run a concession stand at one of the Encore stages every year and it takes a lot of effort just to do this. Running the Dance Club only added to that.
• Chris contacted me sometime last month to see if I was interested in running things this year. If I didn’t want it, Chris said he would still do it because he sees value in the dance club. Running the Club has never been a dream of mine, but it is an event that I have held dear in my heart since 2000. I accepted and we started to chat with John Herrin, the festival director.
• In order to help raise the bar and to ensure an awesome line-up, I brought in Fitzpatrick and Oneel of BTU Live. Fitzpatrick is one of the Dance Club’s biggest fans no matter who runs it. He’s been for at least 6 years now which is saying a lot given how far he has to drive to get there. Oneel loves it to, but brings an added level of professionalism and contacts that I personally do not have.
• Cornerstone is over booked this year. John would like to do the Dance Club again, but he is unsure about the funding of it. Oneel, Patrick and I have been trying to find ways to cut back on the budget and yet maintain the quality. We think we have a plan, but that doesn’t mean John is going to go for it or have the cash to approve it. We’re still waiting to hear from him.
• 5) Flickerings, the movie discussion group that has the barn during the day, wants to start showing movies later at night. The advantage to Cornerstone is that well… movies are cheap. The disadvantage is that the Dance Club is more of a draw for people. We’ll run up to 400 people through there in about 4 hours, but they’ll struggle to get 100. We did decide as a group that Flickerings could have the barn on the last night of the fest though. That’s a fair compromise especially since I don’t want to be doing tear down at 2 am only to start driving hope before 11 am. Not cool.
• Some of you may have already received the teaser flyer in the mail for the festival and seen that it shows the Dance Club. Well… that kinda slipped through. John wasn’t 100% sure that he wanted it then. Or maybe… he did at that point and didn’t know about the budget. Or maybe… It really doesn’t matter. The fact is, the flyer was printed in December, long before any of this came up for discussion.
• Here’s the plan if we do have the Dance Club. It will run from at least Tuesday through Friday. I’d love to do something on Monday night, but I dunno if that will be approved. Tuesday will be a “BTU Live” night. The exact line-up of BTU dj’s will be decided later. The other three nights will be your typical headliner and 2 openers. Some of the names floating around for headliners this year include: Stryke, Kenneth Thomas, Joel Armstrong, Uberzone, Noel Sanger, Hemmstock and Jennings, and more. With a severely reduced budget however, I can tell you that Uberzone, Hemmstock & Jennings and several others will be WAY out of our budget. I wish that were not the case.
• The other 6 slots for the week will be chosen from submitted demos. We will only take a digital demo. This should include: an hour long mix/live pa in mp3 format, a head shot (photo), a bio, a SHORT statement of belief/your testimony, AND… it would be NICE to have a short statement of why you want to perform at the Dance Club. Payment will be very minimal though. You will get admission to the festival, but monetary compensation will depend on the cost of the headliners.
• If we do get to do a show on Monday, we are going to focus on regularly posting DJs on Tastyfresh. Chances are high that there will not be any budget money for this night, but we should be able to get you into the fest. Hopefully, we could start early and run 4-6 DJs through that night and just kickback and have some fun.
• We are also going to hit promoting the Dance Club heavily this year. One thing we are exploring is having a generator stage near the main drag. If we do this, we will have sign-ups or something for time on the decks.

All in all, I think we can have a banner year this year if we get approval and at least the minimal budget we’ve requested. There really isn’t much that can be done beyond what has been done so far outside of prayer, so please keep this in your prayers for the next several weeks. We need to get all of this approved and finalized by March when the final schedule is printed and mailed out.

If you would like to send the festival a few words about how much the Dance Club has meant to you in the past, feel free. Their email form is located at: http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/ContactUs.cfm?pID=20. I would suggest that you send the emails to booking, general info and maybe press. I know that John is really wondering if there is still value and demand for dance music. Be gentle, but let them know that you would miss it if it were absent from the fest. We never speak up about how grateful we are for their support and now it’s almost too late to do so.

Thanks again for your patience. Until we have a final answer on this issue, I would hold off from purchasing advance tickets if the ONLY reason you attend Cornerstone is the Dance Club.

In Christ,
Dave R

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This is old news now. Please check the new thread in the sticky section.

I Think Tastyfresh running the 'barn is a smart move, since Tastyfresh seems to be the main focus in our "scene". I am sad about the iffy-ness of the event though. I am wondering if it isn't time for us to start to focus on an annual Festival similar to clover that is specifically run by Tastyfresh members. We could call it Tastyfest. We've been around for 10 years. It's well past time.

Before you come back with all the reasons why tastyfresh can't or will never do a festival of it's own...sadly, I know. It shoud happen with all of us who would be willing to make it happen, it never will.

At anyrate, I will be sending you a demo and even if I don't get picked to spin, I will be willing to help out for anything you need provided you can at the very least get me in. I don't care about pay. I just want to be there and make it happen.

Chris is definitly on the right track here.  What we need EVERYONE to do is contact Cornerstone,  and very nicely tell them how much the dance barn means to you.  We gotta show them that people really do care about the barn,  and it's significance on the WORLDWIDE MAINSTREAM scene,  not just the Christian scene.  We have a unique opportunity in that Christian artists are leading the way in the SECULAR EDM scene.  I'm not sure if they understand that.

One thing I know we'll need is EVERYONE'S help promoting the barn at Cornerstone.  That means we're going to really need everyone help us get the word out about what's going on during the day at the festival.  If we're aggressive,  I know we can have the best year yet!

Yeah,  if you wanted to make a Christian EDM festival work,  the way to start is by piggybacking off another festival that isn't so big.  400-500 people per night through the dance barn is not a bad number,  but when you consider it's a 25,000-30,000 person festival,  that number can seem a bit insignificant.  Our goal for 2007?  Honestly,  I'd like to see 800-1000 through per night.  I think that's quite achievable.  Granted the capacity of the bar is probably close to 300.  This is understanding that people come through in waves.

All we gotta do is have everyone work together!

by the way.... i,m stoked that the BTU d00ds get a shot at this... i have been so impressed by them!!!! and they rawked at cStone'06... they are awesome promoters... and they make me laugh 

hehehe thats what i thought...

i do think its a good idea... you said main drag.... i think the beach would be SCHWEEEET!!! not sure if they would let us tho.... but hey... worth me pointing out 

If it was at the beach, all the DJs could spin wearing Speedo! Oh... wait... we want to attract people. Nevermind.

kneesha DJ'ed with andy hunter in 2005... she should send in her demo 
and all the wives of our DJ/artists's should submit demo's... i would luv to see HELDbyWILL's wife behind the decks hehehehe