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They come for the music, the message and the fun.
And they come from all over Indiana and beyond to the Pro-Life Music Festival, which concludes at 11 p.m. today at the City/County Athletic Complex.
This is the first year Kelly Baer of North Liberty came, arriving Thursday night. "I think the whole program is great," she said of why she decided to check out the festival.
She brought her four children, two of whom are teenage boys. "I think it's going to have a great impact particularly on the teens."
Teenagers, she said, can see or hear music artists like Eminem anywhere, but at the Pro-Life Music Festival, she said, they also can hear great music with good messages. And they can see that it is possible to have a good time without partying.
"I was here last year and I support pro-life rather than pro-choice," said Preston Savill, 18, South Bend.
He arrived Friday morning and planned to be at the festival all day Friday and most of today.
"I'm surprised I see so many parents and older people here," Savill said. "I wouldn't catch my mom here."
But he said he could see parents coming to support the pro-life message of the three-day event.
"I'm just one person, but I want to make a different. With me coming here, paying $10 for the Kosciusko County Right to Life, I'm supporting them and the cause," he said. "That's why it's so important to me."
And he said he will be back next year. "I'm planning on it if they have it again. I'm sure they will."
At least three youth groups were present Friday.
"My husband is a youth pastor and he brought some kids out," said Laura Spain, LaPorte. "It's just so fun. They have a beautiful day for it."
More importantly, she said, the event is important "because it's a good way for these kids to hear Christian music."
Dana Benkert's husband is helping run the stage for the show and they also brought a youth group, from Buchanan, Mich.
"It's a Pro-Life Music Festival so there's a good message. Christian atmosphere. Lots of fun," she said.
They just finished recently with the Alive Christian Music Festival in Michigan. Asked to compare the two Christian music festivals, Benkert said, "You can't compare them. It's two different events."
She did say the Pro-Life Music Festival is less commercialized and more personalized than the Alive Festival, and she likes that.
"This festival has its own purpose," she said.
Mark Kelly, Leesburg, is a youth pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Oswego. They are camping out all three days for the event.
"For one thing, we're supporting a good cause - pro-life is a good cause," Kelly said. Besides being present to support the cause, the group also is interested in listening to some great music, especially Seventh Day Slumber. That headlining band is slated to play tonight.
"Not only do they have great music," Kelly said, "but they also have a good message" of how God can change someone's life. "There's hope for anyone."
This is the second year Kelly said they've attended the festival, and he said he plans to be back next year.
"They have a lot of neat things here," he said.
Sisters Cassandra (17) and Vanessa (15) Ballard came to Warsaw from Marion for the Pro-Life Music Festival.
"I'm really big on pro-life. I saw about it on the Internet and I thought it would be cool to hang out with people against abortion," said Cassandra.
"I think it's really cool what they're doing, trying to stop all abortions," said Vanessa.
The sisters said they are staying at the festival all three days and were looking forward to KJ-52 performing. Vanessa said she saw him perform before and she liked his show.
"He's a Christian white rapper," she described him.
Nathan Kreider of Columbia City was 18 Friday. Today, he turns 19. He and two of his friends came to the festival between when they had to work. As of Friday afternoon, he described the festival as "pretty neat. I'm excited to see a few of the bands tonight."
What made him decide to check the festival out, he said, was the radio and billboard advertisements.
As for the message of the festival, he said, "I think the message is good. It's different than you hear a lot of the time. It's good to hear that."
And, yes, he said, teens do want to hear the message and are concerned about it. "It's just not expressed."
