Fall Fest drew a crowd of listeners as well as musicians for a relaxing night of acoustic songs, many with guitar and vocals.
The Saturday evening offered an opportunity to enjoy donuts, cider, and live music while seated on the lawn or on hay bales to watch the performance set up at the Hodson Dining Commons Pavilion for the second year.
Fall Fest also offered pumpkin painting this year, reaching new audiences with an interactive activity.
The event, which was put on by the Integration of Faith and Culture (IFC), had a bigger turnout of auditioners than in the past, creating a competitive atmosphere and a difficult selection process for the cabinet.
All 19 groups that auditioned sounded good, but ultimately the IFC team narrowed down the show to ten groups who played the night of.
IFC member Corbin Raines said this made the decision difficult, but “it was a joy to make our life harder.”
This is Raines’ first year with IFC, but he said he’s excited to bring opportunities and fun to a community where there’s not always a lot going on.
“We were looking for options that fit what Fall Fest is about. We were looking for people that we felt [were] more confident on stage, ones that had good song choices, ones that sounded cohesive together,” Audrey Moore, a junior IFC member, said.
To Moore, the event is about enjoying each other’s company on campus in a relaxing way, and this event integrated the beauty of faith and culture, or music, with a few spiritual numbers.
Kirsten “KK” Jones, who sang three songs with Klara Becker, saids her playing is an act of worship.
Jones sings for Taylor Chorale and said that she has sung, created and written music almost all her life.
One of the songs she and Becker played for the set was an original by Jones called “A Dance Through Time,” sung from the perspective of God.
“It was kind of inspired by a friend of mine, who was going through a period of time where she was trying to learn how to dance with God and trust in Him, and she used that imagery of dancing with Him, like the give-and-take in a relationship,” Jones said.
The song offers a message of trusting in the Lord through that time. Showing the song to friends, Jones has realized how timeless it is and said it has been cool to see how God gave it to her and how she has been ministered to through it.
Jones has been putting out music for the last year. She said songs like this one are a joy to share as they open the doors to have a conversation with people and share her testimony through her work.
“I've been thinking a lot about performance over the past year and putting out my music. There's more of a pressure to perform,” Jones said. “I serve a lot in my church at Upland Community Church, in the music ministry. I'm the music intern there, so my heart for it is to share the Lord and what He's done in me, and what He's doing to other people, and just to share the intimate relationship that we can have with Him.”
You can find Jones’ music on Apple Music and Spotify under Kirsten Jones.
The other two songs Jones and Becker sang are “Eustace Scrubb,” written by Sarah Sparks in a Narnia-based album that focuses on transformation, and “You Could Start a Cult” by Niall Horan and Lizzy McAlpine.
