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While I would never go to LifeLight because, well . . . let’s not get into that today. I have said in the past that it is a good thing for Sioux Falls because there is probably some kind of economic impact on the area:

CANTON – One of the nation’s largest Christian music festivals is expected to announce today that it has found a new home in Lincoln County.

The LifeLight Christian music festival will relocate from 160 acres near Wild Water West to 220 acres on a farm just east of Worthing. The new site is about 20 miles south of Sioux Falls.

While I can understand LL moving because it needs more room, I wonder if the rural location will cause some logistical problems? Parking (soft soil)? Electricity (generators being blown out), Emergencies (such as T-storm). I hope it goes off without a hitch, but being that far from Sioux Falls could cause some problems. While I fully understand that they will be saving money on not having to rent the land, you wonder if that money will instead be tossed at solving the logistical problems. I guess we will find out.

20 Thoughts on “LifeLight has room to spread it’s wings, but . . .

  1. Plaintiff Guy on November 17, 2009 at 9:19 am said:

    Likely, the decision to move is logistics. They know they’re growing. Access and space was a problem. Closer to I-29 and between the Sioux cities was a good answer. As usual, the city of Sioux Falls would not cooperate unless the king and his court could profit. Minnehaha county provided good support services but they grumbled some. Lincoln County will gladly accept any business and growth metro Sioux Falls spurns. The new location is close enough to Vermillion and Sioux City that there will be more motel rooms and lower BB&B taxes.

  2. Costner on November 17, 2009 at 9:30 am said:

    Because we all know the hotel space in Canton and Worthing is enough to hold the LifeLight crowd.

    I think it is incredibly stupid to develop a facility which will only be used one time a year. Had they partnered with an organization such as the Sioux Empire Fair, perhaps they could have developed a facility which could be used throughout the year instead of just one weekend.

  3. Ghost of Dude on November 17, 2009 at 9:39 am said:

    PG – Lincoln county IS metro Sioux Falls.

  4. Plaintiff Guy on November 17, 2009 at 9:50 am said:

    Partnering with the fair is a good idea. LL could have thought of it but steered clear after the recent near bankruptcy. They’ll lease the land for now but probably buy it for nearly nothing and get it rezoned. Churches are a way to build assets (tax exempt). Let’s start one, the ‘Church of Berny Madoff’.
    Ask Lincoln County or Canton if they are part of Sioux Falls. It’s a reputation they do not want to be known for.

  5. Anthony on November 17, 2009 at 9:51 am said:

    Some day I’d like to see an accurate count of how many out of town people actually go to LifeLight. I understand that it would be hard (what with the no selling tickets and all)…But the numbers that LifeLight itself reports are somewhat unbelievable.

    They stated that there were 130000 people there on Saturday and Sunday. Where did they all stay/eat/whatever? I’ve been to music festivals that had 100000 paid admissions…Roads were backed up for DAYS before and after the festival. Even assuming that two thirds of the people are local to the area – where did the extra 43000 people stay? There are only around 4100 hotel rooms in Sioux Falls…and only a finite number of churches with basements that people can sleep in….where did the rest go?
    I’m not saying that it’s a big music festival…or that a lot of people go there. I’m just saying that the numbers seem somewhat off.

  6. The numbers are way off. My assumption is that the sam 120,000 people go to the festival everyday. I figure about 60-70% are from the area and drive there. That leaves the rest to stay at churches, houses, campground and hotels. I bet SC will snatch a lot of them up. Most spend no money, bring there own food, etc.

  7. Angry Guy on November 17, 2009 at 10:07 am said:

    The SE Fairgrounds is WAY too small to hold a festival of that size, inflated numbers or not. It is my understanding that the long term plan for the grounds won’t host just one event a year and then be empty the other 360 days. There will be permanent facilities where they will have classes for seminary crap. Just wait. There will be all kinds of shit that goes on there during the non-snowy months. X-tians love to have their youth rallys, and this will be a great place to send your kids to be brainwashed in the name of Jebus.

  8. The SE Fairgrounds is WAY too small to hold a festival of that size, inflated numbers or not.

    My point is they could relocate the fairgrounds to accomodate both… heck add in a new Events Center and you have three birds with one stone.

    The land the current SE Fair sits on is worth far more than the structures because it is a quarry. They could sell it and demolish everything and still come out ahead, but asking two groups to work together is a futile effort much less three.

    I know it is a pipe dream.

  9. Ghost of Dude on November 17, 2009 at 11:52 am said:

    Ask Lincoln County or Canton if they are part of Sioux Falls. It’s a reputation they do not want to be known for.

    Ask the census bureau. They’re part of the Sioux Falls MSA whether they like it or not.

    I’ve never understood the hate the rest of this bassackward state has for SF.

  10. You should hear from the West River folks think of Sioux Falls. I think part of it just a deep desire to differentiate within the borders – almost a brown eyes / blue eyes type of distinction with no basis in logic.

  11. Ghost of Dude on November 17, 2009 at 12:51 pm said:

    My favorite are the people who think Sioux Falls is a big city.

    I think part of the hate is resentment that the rest of the state’s kids move here to find jobs and start families leaving their home towns to dry up.

  12. Costner, I think the county should contract the mining and make a commission from it, rebuild a facility like you mention. It would reduce our property taxes significantly.

  13. What local event ever states a realistic attendance figure? They use the same counters as used at the Million Man March.

  14. Plaintiff Guy on November 17, 2009 at 6:21 pm said:

    Ghost:
    Sioux Falls is a leader in the top 40 metro areas size. It’s a fault because that’s when distinctive problems occur. If I were moving in, I’d be looking neighboring. That’s areas that will realize real estate appreciation and not become slums due to excess taxation, over regulation, and malfeasance.

  15. Plaintiff Guy on November 17, 2009 at 6:28 pm said:

    It’s why there’s out of city development for Lifelight, casino resorts, wind energy manufacturing, refinerys, and transportation. It will cost us to be in the center of it. Were it not for greedy politicians and interests, we could have had the best of both worlds.

  16. FYI: The site is only 11 miles south of Sioux Falls. The paper got that one wrong.

  17. Nathan-

    Thanks for clarifying that, BTW, since you are involved with LL, (RIGHT?) Give us your opinion on the move, no BS, the good the bad and the ugly, If it is long, just email it to me, and I will put it as a regular post.

    Scott Ehrisman
    SouthDaCola

  18. redhatterb on November 17, 2009 at 10:28 pm said:

    Some of the people that attend Lifelight camp out at the site. I’m wondering how many people would attend if they had to pay.

  19. anominous on November 17, 2009 at 11:42 pm said:

    Isn’t there a big ol’ poopy cattle yard or something down there?

  20. SO there is less than a month until the festival. We live across the highway from where it will be this year. They have NOTHING built. Their fields are currently flooded and un-mowed. Most of the roads leading into the area are gravel or dirt and are in bad condition from the flooding. There is ONE intersection that they expect to move all those people through. I don’t know how they are going to pull any of it off. But that’s ok with us. Nobody asked us if it was ok to have a festival with 300,000 people across the street. We will have to put up barriers to keep drunks off of our property. We will have to put up with the loud music until 2am. Personally, we are disgusted with the whole mess and think that Alan Greene needs to be more considerate and actually ask people living in the area if it is ok to throw a giant party across the street.

    Hopefully they will get rained out and move the concert back to the Arena in Sioux Falls where it belongs. Or even Sioux City. Somewhere that doesn’t mind having so many people in one place at once.

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