New 96five Podcast Tells the Story of the Easterfest Era - 96five Family Radio

New 96five Podcast Tells the Story of the Easterfest Era

The festival grew to become one of Queensland’s major events, but was forced to finish up just a few years after its largest ever turnout.

By 96five Wednesday 5 Feb 2025PodcastsReading Time: 4 minutes

Main Image: Michael Tait of the Newsboys amps up the Easterfest crowd in 2010 (Trent Rouillon).

By the late 2000’s Easterfest, (previously the Australian Gospel Music Festival) had grown to become the absolute highlight on the Australian Christian calendar.  

The music festival would go on to become one of Queensland’s major events, and one of the largest ticketed drug and alcohol free events in the southern hemisphere. 

Tens of thousands of people – artists, crew and music fans would descend, or perhaps more correctly ascend, to the top of the Great Dividing Range, and the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba over the Easter weekend. 

From humble beginnings in 1999, the then Australian Gospel Music Festival (or AGMF as it was more commonly referred to) saw the churches of Toowoomba join forces with the local chamber of commerce, the Toowoomba City Council and the Queensland Police to create a new tourism opportunity for the city. 

“That had come about because the churches in Toowoomba at the time were really working together, thinking bigger than just their own congregations and had a vision for their city”, former Easterfest CEO Isaac Moody told 96five in a brand new podcast series. 

 “And so they were ripe and in the right head space to be able to be involved in more of the civic goals of the city.” 

Peter Furler and band onstage at Easterfest in 2013 (Trent Rouillon).

Isaac, who was in charge of the festival from 2000 until 2011, said that initially the event was planned as a tourism drawcard, in the same vein as Tamworth’s Country Music Festival. 

“The original committee had aspirations for thousands of people being there, but probably not a great sense of reality on how to make it happen.  

“They just saw it as a tourism play like Tamworth and they didn’t have a faith background, necessarily. And in fact, the people who were of faith would be in the minority of that initial board and working group. 

“This was people with no understanding of Christian music or wouldn’t have any idea that a band like Delirious existed or the Newsboys or DC Talk or any of those sort of artists that were all well known in, I guess, more of a Christian community.” 

In spite of that, the event would end up seeing attendances of around 40,000 people at its peak.

Rapper Lecrae, Matt Thiessen of Relient K and Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman (Trent Rouillon).

It’s now a decade since the final festival wrapped up in 2015, with the story of Easterfest and AGMF the subject of a brand new four part podcast series coming in March.

The Rise & Fall of Easterfest is written and hosted by 96five’s Justin Rouillon, who was a festival regular since 2000.

“In the late 90’s I’d been very much into the local Brisbane band scenes, both in a mainstream and a Christian context”, said Justin.

“Often those lines were blurred with bands who had a faith background, as it wasn’t uncommon to find bands like Battered Fish or Dumpster playing in a pub one weekend, and then a church or youth group the next.

“Brisbane had a booming music scene with events like Manifesto held each month at Glad Tidings City Church, as well as the annual Groundswell festival, so when AGMF came along it just felt like an extension of what was already happening.”

Podcast host Justin Rouillon playing drums with Newport at Easterfest in 2011 (Trent Rouillon).

It was the UK worship band Delirious’ concert held in early 2000 that really opened Justin’s eyes to what the AGMF organisers were trying to achieve.

“Delirious sharing the stage with Alabaster Box, Rhubarb and Adam Lester was like a mini version of the what the event would become.  It was clear that what Isaac Moody and his team were trying to do was build a music festival that could attract the best Christian artists and bands in the world.

“I loved the AGMF and Easterfest experience, and the opportunities it gave Australian artists to rub shoulders with some of the biggest acts in the world.”

Scotty McDonald and Az Hamilton, both former presenters of 96five’s youth show Nite Alive address the main stage audience (Trent Rouillon).

The Rise & Fall of Easterfest is a four part series exploring the rise, the music, the experience and the fall of the event.

You’ll hear from the people behind the scenes of Easterfest – Isaac Moody, Dave Schenk and Linda Monteith, as well as performers like Paul Colman and Phil Gaudion (Paul Colman Trio), Claire Hazzard, Joel Smallbone (For King + Country), Jeremy Fowler (New Empire), Matt Jacoby (Sons of Korah), Richard Thayil (The Empty Chair Project/Scat), Jeremy Bennett (Toupee Records/Battered Fish/Leo Nine), Naraah Seagrott (Alabaster Box) and more.

You can subscribe to The Rise & Fall of Easterfest on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.  You can also listen on the 96five app or on the 96five Podcast Page.