Replenish Festival 2016
-The following first appeared in the July 14, 2016 issue of The Floyd Press with a larger spread of photos.
The faith-based Replenish Festival has visibly grown. The second annual festival – held at the Burnett Farm in Floyd County on July 9-10 – drew attendees from as far away as Georgia and Florida and from all over North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia.
The sunny weather complimented the program of family fun, fellowship, inspirational speakers and worship music that featured the Grammy nominated band Building 429 and billboard chart-breaker JJ Weeks.
Inflatable bounce houses, sandbox and creek-side play kept the little ones happy. Attendees enjoyed brick oven pizza, BBQ, funnel cakes, lemonade and (free) popcorn.
For the 2016 festival, organizers added a shuttle van to transport attendees from the parking lot to the festival site of open meadows and woodland along Greasy Creek. They also added more lighting, more vending and a rubber duck race, a ministry fundraiser with donated prizes for the winners.
“This year we have an after party barn dance and bonfire on the hill,” said Mandie Bishop, who co-founded the Replenish non-profit with her husband Travis. “Last year people just didn’t want to leave. They wanted to stay and talk.”
The festival concludes with a Sunday worship service by the creek, which is free and open to the public. Bishop reported that last year 50 people received Christ and two were baptized during the service. The Replenish prayer ministry team follows up with those individuals by keeping in phone contact and connecting them with a church in their area.
Reverb Worship from the Oasis Church in Radford will be leading the Sunday morning worship, Bishop said on Saturday. “They’re shutting down their church Sunday morning and bringing buses of people for the service,” she said. _________Colleen Redman
Festival co-founder Mandie Bishop chats with members of Hillsville’s Joy Ranch, which provides Christian homes for children in crisis. The Replenish ministry hosted a 5K race to benefit the ranch in April. Children from the ranch attended the festival free.
