Despite Hot Weather, Spirits Stay High at Christian Music Fest

It could have been described as Woodstock with a big dose of the gospel thrown in. There were messages of peace and love, but the emphasis here was on God’s love. Vendors hawked T-shirts, but instead of the tie-dyed variety, they carried pithy sayings about Christ.

The last day of “Summer Praise ‘94,” a Christian music festival at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, was a low-key event.

Despite the 100-plus temperatures, more than 15,000 people--mostly teen-agers and young adults--came out during the four-day music festival to hear Christian rockers, buy T-shirts with Biblical inscriptions or enjoy the amusement rides.

“We came to hear some good Christian bands, and see what kinds of things the vendors have,” said Jackie Shires, who drove with her husband, Tim, and their small child from Temecula.

The Christian musicians on hand ranged from Sozo, a house music duo, to Christ-afaria, a reggae group. Danielle Pryor of Sozo said her music promotes a drug- and sex-free lifestyle. “We want to show people that you don’t have to live that kind of life to have fun.”

Between music acts, there were speeches. One man, who said he was a high school principal, urged the assembled to encourage their schools to offer courses in Christianity.

“When you begin to present the arguments for Bible study to your school boards, they will get very excited,” the man said. “We wonder why people can’t follow laws. It’s because young people don’t read the Bible in school anymore. So we must tell (school officials) our Constitution could not continue to work without our Bible.”

Vendor Dennis Trollope was selling T-shirts, one of which showed a Noah’s Ark-as-spaceship. The passengers in the futuristic vessel were singer Michael Jackson and his pet orangutan. “See, they’re going to pick up all the animals in the zoos and (research) laboratories because there won’t be any diseases,” Trollope explained.

Seventeen-year-old Eric Dant of Long Beach was a volunteer in the prayer tent. “People come in and we talk about their trials and tribulations,” he said. “Then I try to find something in the Scriptures that relates to it.”

Despite the sauna-like conditions of the canvas tent, Eric said he wasn’t bothered. “God will provide,” he said about the heat. “It’s not burdensome at all.”

Other booths at “Summer Praise” included Pog Heaven, which sold Pog pieces with passages from the Bible imprinted on them, and a pregnancy crisis counseling center offering alternatives to abortion.

Timothy Williams is a Times staff writer. Maki Becker is a correspondent.