On Thursday, July 28th morning, twenty thousand Christians gathering from Northern California and nearby regions came together for the opening worship of the ninth Spirit West Coast festival in Monterey, led by UK young worship leader Vicky Beeching. This year’s theme is “Love Big”, which asks the question “do we really truly know how Big GOD Loves us?” The festival challenges each person this year to find this, and to change and live a life to also Love GOD Big.

The first day continued as all seven stages at the Laguna Seca fairgrounds opened up. The main stage, sponsored by Christian adult contemporary radio network K-Love, hosted famed artist Joy Williams, up-and-coming rock band Building 429, and rapper KJ-52, along with Charity Von and Monk & Neagle. On the Air1 and Tooth & Nail stages, the music was heavier with rock and hip-hop artists Stellar Kart, Manafest, Benjiman, The Fold, and others. Throughout the festival grounds were K-Life stage, Spirit stage, and Worship Together’s stages #1 and #2. Seminars spoke of topics ranging from evangelism training to perfect worship & the perfect worshipper. Worship Together held New Song Café’s throughout the afternoon, where artists conversed with fans and each other.

This year, Big Idea sponsored Veggie Land, a playground for the children attending Spirit West Coast. Veggie Land offered shows geared towards children, as well as activities and games to keep children entertained throughout the day.

Evening began with a worship session on the main stage, led by Six-Steps Record’s Chris Tomlin. Afterwards, main stage welcomed Jeremy Camp, who rocked the audience and prepared them to receive the evening message delivered by Erwin McManus, the pastor of Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, who encouraged each person to reveal an untamed faith within. Hawk Nelson and Thousand Foot Krutch followed later that evening on the Air1 stage.

At 8:30pm, the night’s headliners MercyMe walked on stage, and raised the crowd to their feet with their hit songs Spoken For, Here With Me, Undone, I Can Only Imagine, and many others. Bart Millard spoke about a generation too busy to listen to God, but encouraged people to “stop and listen to the God of eternity.”

Day 1 of Spirit West Coast Monterey was filled with activities, music, God’s message and Spirit. Jon Robberson, Director & Producer of SWC, welcomed saying “Hundreds of people left last year’s event spiritually different than when they arrived. Salvation, encouragement, escaping worldly entanglements, rededications, mended relationships…so much can happen when people take time to put themselves in a place to hear from the Lord and be impacted by His Spirit.”