A new 4-part podcast looks back on the Christian music phenomenon that was Toowoomba's 'Easterfest'.
A new four-part podcast from 96five, The Rise and Fall of Easterfest, highlights the remarkable impact the long-running music festival had on Australia’s Christian music scene.
Written and hosted by Justin Rouillon of Brisbane’s 96five, the podcast features interviews with artists like Paul Colman and Phil Gaudion (Paul Colman Trio), Joel Smallbone (For King + Country), Jeremy Fowler (New Empire), Matt Jacoby (Sons of Korah), Naraah Seagrott (Alabaster Box), Claire Hazzard and more, along with the people behind the scenes of Easterfest – Isaac Moody, Dave Schenk and Linda Monteith.
By the late 2000s Easterfest (previously the Australian Gospel Music Festival) had grown to become a highlight on Australia’s Christian calendar, attracting attendances of around 40,000 at its peak.
The music festival started out in 1999 as the Australian Gospel Music Festival (AGMF), when the churches of Toowoomba joined forces with the local chamber of commerce, Toowoomba City Council and the Queensland Police to create a new tourism opportunity for the city.
“The churches in Toowoomba at the time were really working together, thinking bigger than just their own congregations, and had a vision for their city”, former Easterfest CEO Isaac Moody explains on the podcast.
“They [the civic organisations] saw it as a tourism play like Tamworth… people with no understanding of Christian music [who] wouldn’t have any idea that a band like Delirious existed… The people who were of faith [were] in the minority of that initial board and working group.”
In time it became one of Queensland’s major events, and one of the largest ticketed drug and alcohol free events in the southern hemisphere.
The host of the Rise and Fall podcast, Justin Rouillon, himself a drummer who played with the band Newport in 2011, was a regular Easterfest-goer since 2000.
“In the late 90’s I’d been very much into the local Brisbane band scenes, both in a mainstream and a Christian context,” Justin said. “Brisbane had a booming music scene with events like Manifesto, Groundswell and the Australia Day Music Marathons, so when AGMF came along, it just felt like an extension of what was already happening.
“Tens of thousands of people – artists, crew and music fans would descend, or perhaps more correctly ascend, to the top of the Great Dividing Range, and the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba, over the Easter weekend.”
Now, a decade since the final festival wrapped up in 2015, the podcast series looks back and celebrates what was for both Toowoomba and Australia's Christian music community, a remarkable achievement.
The Rise & Fall of Easterfest drops on Monday, March 3. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
Main image: Peter Furler of Newsboys fame was one of the headline artists at Easterfest in 2013. (Photo: Trent Rouillon)