Alive Festival continues to grow but manages to stay under radar

By John Benson

People from all over the world have attended the festival in Stark County.

For the past 21 years, Clay’s Park Resort has been transformed into a city within a city with the annual Alive Festival, which is scheduled to take place Wednesday through June 21 just outside of Canal Fulton.

“We’ve quietly had our event every year where we have 600 volunteers and transform 350 acres into a city,” said Alive Festival Director Bill Graening. “So here we are with 20,000 people on the hill, and we don’t spare any expense. We’ll have a great cross-section of bands this year like Leeland, Casting Crowns, TobyMac and Sixpence None The Richer.”

He added, “We spend quite a bit to make it a quality event.”

Alive Festival is a four day-affair based around dozens of Christian artists, speakers and worship leaders appearing on three stages. There’s also plenty of family fun such as camping, swimming and more. Invariably, the entire festival is a Christian version of the legendary ’60s Woodstock event.

“We have state-of-the-art sound and giant LED screens,” Graening said. “We have better production than most concert venues have anymore. I think the fact we have obviously a great facility with over 50 bands, it seems like we have a huge group of families and individuals that come out and people from the community just love this great event.

“We draw from 40 states and Canada. Last year we had people from Denmark and Hawaii. So we draw from people all over the country, and now we’re starting to get people from different parts of the world. It’s a very fun event.”

Graening said with today’s gas prices through the roof, the Alive Festival costs most families a little more than $100 per day for an inexpensive vacation that goes beyond music. This year’s Sports Zone area is Cleveland Browns-centric with appearances scheduled for quarterback Brady Quinn, running back Jason Wright and Browns General Manager Phil Savage. In addition, a NASCAR simulator will be on the premises to add to the excitement.

Even though the Alive Festival is in its third decade of existence, Graening does feel as though it’s still not receiving the recognition it should.

“It is under the radar,” Graening said. “It’s kind of always been under the radar, even though I think we promote it and get good coverage. We do have crossover bands that I would say are known, but when you are doing contemporary Christian music, I think it’s known by a lot of the area people who have been going for years. We’ve been told it’s probably the second-largest tourism draw in Stark County next to the [National Football League] Hall of Fame.”

He added, “We’re not really doing it to get noticed. It’s kind of funny people don’t hear about it more. So we spend quite a bit to make it a quality event and a safe event. We’ve had 21 years without a major [negative] event. So I think it’s turned into people appreciating the safe environment.”