I Love Kingdom Bound

ok, for those of you that don't know, which is probably most of you, but nobody reads my blog anyways so I guess it doesn't really matter either way, Kingdom Bound is a really amazing-tacular 4 day Christian Festival at Darien Lake amusement park, and it's awesome because I basically overdose on a bunch of my favorite bands, get completely exhausted, buy way to much stuff, and love every moment of it... except maybe the moments I spend running from the Park Stage to the PAC because two amazing bands decided to overlap their time slots.
My Kingdom Bound adventures started last Thursday, when I woke up early enough to see the sunrise and rode out to Darien to volunteer on a Load-Out shift. First of all, let it be known that if I am seeing the sunset, it is because I stayed up too late, I definitely do not wake up that early. Our group was assigned to the Houghten College Park Stage. I started my morning building snow fence, something I really am not qualified to do, basically you lift this giant blue cowbell which must weigh at least 60 lbs. and slam it down on a post repeatedly. Of course, I didn't do this singlehandedly, then I probably would have passed out, but it was still positively exhausting and got two blisters, then we wrapped big orange snow fence around the posts and secured them with zip ties, which I love. I really enjoy going up to the fence and talking to my new friend Joe the security guard, bragging to anyone around that I have blisters because of this fence. It makes me feel important, which probably isn't very healthy for my ego. I also helped build the actual stage, screwing the legs onto the deck, and helping put the tent bit up. It made me feel really cool and I'm kind of excited that it didn't Collapse.

So Monday was the first day I went to the actual festival which started on Sunday, which was my 19th birthday. I didn't go Sunday because my parents got me tickets for Monday Tuesday Wednesday after five for my birthday. Leeland played a very very short set Monday and they were amazing, they played Tears of the Saints which is my favorite song ever of all time, I also met them, which made my day. I love them. I'm fairly certain Leeland is my favorite band, I'm a very indecisive person though so I have trouble figuring that out, but I really really love them a lot.

I also saw Skillet Monday, they rock my face off, they were awesome, even better than last year, seriously hardcore. I love Skillet, but not as much as Leeland. I also saw a little bit of Thousand Foot Krutch, I would've liked to see more of them but I would've missed Leeland which would have been a tragedy. I saw a few minutes of Third Day, and they were awesome, but I was so beat that I couldn't really enjoy the wonderfulness of it and we left early. But yeah, it was awesome.

Thursday was the most Funmazing day of all because that was the day that Leeland played at the park stage. I went an hour and a half before their show to talk to my new best friend Joe the security guard, who had told me that he would let me sit on the other side of the barrier for Leeland. Unfortunately Joe was not there, so I talked to the other security guards and they said Joe wasn't coming until 8:30!!! I was very upset because Joe had said he would be there and they were telling me he wasn't coming until after they played, but the security guard who is now known as "little Joe" talked to Joe on the radio and let me sit on the other side of the barrier!!! It was awesome!! I was mesmerized by the wonderfulness of watching Leeland perform. They are so amazing live, I just feel the presence of God so much in their music so it was an incredible experience. After the show Joe let us backstage to chill with them, it was awesome, so so so awesome. After the Leeland show we decided to ride the Superman and we were 3rd in line when they decided to close it because of lightning, it was kind of a bummer. Then it started pouring like crazy and we got soaked, they even canceled the Seventh Day Slumber show :(. Luckily we managed to stay kind of dry because I had friends working the Enemy Opposition merch tent. We rocked out with the boys of Enemy Opp. to random songs about rain (Umbrella by Rhianna; Hillary Duff's "Coming Clean" etc.) It is hilarious to see guys rocking out to Hilary Duff, I'm not kidding. Then when the rain calmed down a bit we rode the Merry-Go-Round because it was the only ride open in the park. It was a great day.

Wednesday was pretty fun too, I showed up late so I missed Fireflight, but I got to rock out to Disciple and it was awesome. I tried to catch the end of Delirious? but I walk slow and stopped to get a soda on the way and ended up seeing all of half the last song. After that I had to start my load out shift and unfortunately did not get to see the amazingness that is Newsboys annual closing show with their crazy dueling rotating drum sets. The load out shift was positively exhausting, lot's of unscrewing and carrying pieces and other things that lead me to exhaustion. I didn't get home until 4 am and almost hit a deer on the way home. It was ridiculous. Kingdom Bound was still awesome though, I can't wait until next year!!