The Christian music festival SoulFest is coming to the Franklin County Fairgrounds for a weekend of music, community and advocacy from Aug. 15-17. 

The festival has been operating since 1998, combining music from popular Christian music acts across genres, with social causes and ministry. 

SoulFest Co-founder Dan Russell says the festival is meant to be “nurturing,” not only musically, but for wider social causes that can help others. 

“[The festival] is providing [attendees] with new information about different charities and different activities,” Russell said. “When you start thinking about others and helping those in need and you think less about yourself, you're nurturing your soul.”

As part of this goal of SoulFest, charities, such as Haiti180 and Exodus Red, have partnered with the festival as sponsors. The festival is also working with other non-profits and businesses focused in family planning, recovery services, education and more. 

The festival also has several ministries and exhibitors that will be present at the festival as part of Soul University, where scheduled speakers and musicians will host workshops and talks.

Russell also noted The True Love Pledge as another part of the social consciousness the festival aims to instill in attendees. This pledge came from a project Russell did at a prior festival box office. 

“I had a piece of paper at the box office for people to just to make a pledge to live from the inside out and start with all the souls under your roof, then your neighborhood and the concentric circles expand,” Russell said.

The full pledge listed on the SoulFest website includes seven tenets for attendees to consider as guidance for their time at the festival. 

“We want to have a holistic time and experience where you come and there’s 20 food trucks, there’s all kinds of activities, there’s all kinds of genres [and] 35 or so workshops,” Russell said about the festival.

Headliners include Crowder, Zach Williams, Matthew West, Ben Fuller and other prominent Christian music acts. 

Soulfest Public Relations Specialist Debby Porter explained that the festival hosts many genres of Christian music, such as country, rap, R&B and rock, with some musicians having appeared in Top 40 Christian music charts. 

“Zach Williams is someone that people may have heard of, and he did a song recently with Dolly Parton, which was what made it big,” Porter said about the 2020 song “There Was Jesus,” which reached #1 in the Billboard Christian Chart. 

Although the music is an important aspect of the programming, it is not the singular purpose of the festival. 

“We want to do so much more than just put people on stage, rotate them and call it Christian entertainment,” Russell said. Moreover, Russell emphasizes the welcoming nature of the festival for those at any stage of their faith. 

“It's very flexible and [there are] no judgments on where anyone comes from. We want them all to come in,” Russell said. He said the goal is to engage attendees in social causes while enjoying the music.

Porter reflects this attitude as well, saying that the festival is an “open door” for all to attend.

“We're open to all denominations, all forms of faith and religion. We welcome everybody in the open door,” Porter said. 

SoulFest is scheduled to run from Thursday Aug. 15 through Saturday Aug. 17, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., rain or shine. Musical acts and speakers will be presented across five stages and in the Baby Barn Building. 

Tickets are available at the SoulFest website: https://www.thesoulfest.com/tickets. Discounts are available for kids, military veterans, large groups and seniors.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.