Chaplaincy at Australia's Biggest Christian Festival

This blog was originally posted in March 2012. 2 years on, the cry has once again gone out for willing and able volunteers to assist in a unique festival position. Although this is a re-run, you can hear a recent conversation with the Chaplaincy Coordinator Leanne Hutton.

Every Easter the city of Toowoomba in regional QLD plays host to a massive music festival that also features a mass of great speakers. This festival started off as The Australian Gospel Music Festival, but changed its name to Easterfest for its 10^th anniversary 5 years ago to better reflect its mission to be a festival at Easter about Easter.

Being a Christian festival, one thing that they are constantly aiming to do is to look after the spiritual health of the (mostly) volunteers that make this festival happen and this is done through a network of chaplains.

Leanne Hutton (R), Chaplaincy Coordinator for Easterfest

Leanne Hutton, chaplaincy coordinator, says they are coming from a place of service to just “be there” and to help out with stress and bring God into the forefront of everything that happens. This is done through praying for people, sharing a cuppa or lending a hand in areas which reflect the skills of their other lives. Throat lozenges, water, band aids, earplugs, picks, safety pins are the main stay of a chaplain’s “tool kit” which comes out of years of Leanne being a mum to a musician. “Musicians are a forgetful bunch on the whole, so its amazing how often they forget to drink before performing. If someone loses a pick in the grass, its great to pray about it, its even better to just hand one to the artist.”

A great example of the way that chaplains can be an asset in a totally unforseeable way was at last year’s festival when the site in Queen’s Park copped a torrential downpour and had to be evacuated. “The young man who was chaplain for Mainstage was a Large Tongan young man who used his physical strength to lift and carry…” Leanne said. “Another person who was only able to come on the Sunday, in his professional life he had been involved in the Brisbane floods looking after the victims and he knew how to speak to the young people who had been in a pretty stressful situation the night before. I think he went to every campsite that remained and spoke to everyone to see how they were doing. I had just the right people for the jobs that needed to be done.” 

Chaplains are being recruited for this year’s festival and the type of person Leanne is looking for is specific. “We don’t really want someone who is there to get their photo taken with a famous person. We want someone who can be sensitive and caring and who understands that everyone from the car park attendant to the sound and lighting techs and the artists need someone who will be there to listen, pray and just be available.”

http://easterfest.com/apply/