Subscriber Playlist, July 2023: A Return to Bushnell, Volume 2
Subscribers can enjoy another nostalgic trip down to Bushnell, IL., for the Cornerstone Festival.
I was recently chatting with a friend when the topic of Cornerstone came up. If seeing that word doesn’t immediately bring on a wave of nostalgia, here’s a quick rundown: the Cornerstone Festival was a Christian music and arts festival that ran from 1984 to 2012, and from the early ’90s on, was held just outside the town of Bushnell, Illinois.
In the first week of July, thousands of attendees from around the world would congregate amidst the Illinois cornfields to see hundreds of bands spanning all manner of genres: punk, metal, folk, techno, indie-rock, etc. In addition to all of the concerts, Cornerstone also held seminars and workshops on art and religion, and even had its own film festival called Flickerings.
Back in the day on July 1, I’d already have camp set up on the Cornerstone grounds with a caravan of my friends, and I’d be preparing myself for a week of life-changing experiences. Which is no hyperbole.