How a risky experiment turned an empty Riverbend night into one of the festival’s defining features

It was really through some God-orchestrated events that I couldn't put together that it did come off that year (2006), and the community has been wonderful to support it.

Staff Photo by Doug StricklandHeadliner Chris Tomlin performs on the Coca-Cola Stage during Riverbend’s Faith and Family Night in 2012.

There are some who criticize Riverbend Festival organizers for being too set in their ways and not taking enough chances in its decades on the riverfront. But occasionally, Friends of the Festival will nod at the curve.

Fifteen years ago, organizers agreed to transform an otherwise “dark” evening when equipment languished in disuse into a celebration of Christian music and family values. In the years since, organizers say, the annual Faith and Family evening has become one of the festival’s defining features, a flourish that sets it apart from other events almost as much as the iconic Coca-Cola Stage barge.