Cornerstone Festival was a

Christian music festival A Christian music festival (also known as a Jesus music festival or simply a Jesus festival) is a music festival held by the Christians, Christian community, in support of performers of Contemporary Christian music, Christian music. The festivals ...

put on by

Jesus People USA Jesus People USA (JPUSA) pronounced: ǰ-pu-sa is a Christian intentional community in Uptown, on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. JPUSA emerged from Jesus People Milwaukee in 1972, and maintains one of the largest continuing communities ...

and held annually around July 4 near Bushnell, Illinois, drawing some 20,000 attendees each year. In a given year, many artists that played at Cornerstone also played at other events such as

Creation Festival Creation Festival, commonly shortened to Creation, was an annual four-day Christian music festival in the United States. According to its organizers, it was the "Nation's Largest Christian Music Festival." Average attendance was between 50,000 ...

and mainstream festivals and tours such as the

Warped Tour The Warped Tour is a Concert tour, touring Rock music, rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music ...

. The final festival was held in 2012. Cornerstone Festival was a member of the

Christian Festival Association The Christian Festival Association was formed in September 2006. The group consists of members representing major Christian music festivals held in the United States and Canada. Collectively, this group represents nearly a million attendees annually ...

History

From 1984 to 1990, Cornerstone was held at the Lake County Fairgrounds near

Grayslake, Illinois {{Infobox settlement , name = Grayslake, Illinois , settlement_type = Village , nickname = , motto = , image_skyline = Grayslake.PNG , image_caption ...

. In 1991, Cornerstone moved near the town of Bushnell (outside Macomb) where the organizers of the festival purchased a large piece of land, which is now called "Cornerstone Farm". Tens of thousands of people attended Cornerstone Farm each year and saw over 300 bands play many styles of music, including

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

, hardcore and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

. In addition to the many musicians, Cornerstone Festival also presented guest speakers, and featured independent/foreign film screenings, writers' seminars, and art workshops. In 2010 the festival's main stage moved to the "Midway", which is about 0.7 miles northeast of its previous location in the "bowl". The 2011 festival featured a Jesus Rally showcasing many of the groundbreaking

Jesus music Jesus music, known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music that originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This musical genre developed in parallel to the Jesus movement ...

artists including;

Servant A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly ...

Daniel Amos Daniel Amos (aka D. A., Dä) is an American Christian rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter (musician), Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. ...

Randy Stonehill Randall Evan Stonehill (born March 12, 1952) is an American singer and songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the pioneers of contemporary Christian music. His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but ...

Barry McGuire Barry McGuire (born October 15, 1935) is an American singer-songwriter primarily known for his 1965 hit " Eve of Destruction". He was later a singer and songwriter of contemporary Christian music. Early life McGuire was born in Oklahoma City; ...

Resurrection Band Resurrection Band, also known as Rez Band or REZ, was a Christian rock band formed in 1972. They were part of the Jesus People USA Christian community in Chicago and most of its members have continued in that community to this day. Known for t ...

Phil Keaggy Philip Tyler Keaggy (born March 23, 1951) is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 55 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. H ...

, and Classic Petra. On May 15, 2012 it was announced that the 2012 Festival would be the last. The final song performed at Cornerstone, on July 7, 2012, was "To Bid Farewell" performed by

Derri Daugherty Derri Daugherty (born Derald Daugherty; October 13, 1958) is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for band the Choir. Daugherty is also one of the founding members of the R ...

and Steve Hindalong of The Choir. The festival ceased due to budgetary reasons.

References

Books

* Young, Shawn David, "Hippies, Jesus Freaks, and Music" (Ann Arbor: Xanedu/Copley Original Works, 2005).

External links

* * {{Coord, 40, 31, 53.00, N, 90, 26, 12.00, W, display=title Grayslake, Illinois Tourist attractions in McDonough County, Illinois Music festivals in Illinois 1984 establishments in Illinois 2012 disestablishments in Illinois Christian music festivals Defunct music festivals Music festivals established in 1984 Recurring events disestablished in 2012