Music

God’s Country: A Trip to America’s Biggest Christian Music Festival

This documentary is dedicated to John Jeremiah Sullivan, whose essay Upon This Rock for GQ inspired the film.

In summer 2016, we traveled to one of the biggest Christian music festivals in the county, Creation Music Festival, to catch a glimpse of what goes on inside the bubble of Christian music.  I Saw the Light  is documentary film about the trip, following a youth group on their adventure from the outskirts of Baltimore to the middle of Pennsylvania—or as folks in the area like to call it, God’s Country. The 35-minute piece—which also inspired an article for VICE’s music issue—is produced by VICE’s Chloe Campion and hosted by Noisey’s editor-in-chief, Eric Sundermann. Through conversations with Grammy winning pop duo for KING & COUNTRY and rapper Andy Mineo—along with speakers from the 50,000+ attended festival—the documentary takes a thoughtful look at the world of Christian music, belief, growing up, and Jesus Christ. To quote a character in the film, we’re “not going to call this the Christian Woodstock, but… it’s the Christian Woodstock.”

Videos by VICE

Eric Sundermann is the editor-in-chief of Noisey. Follow him on Twitter

Chloe Campion is a producer at VICE. Follow her on Instagram