Coming up on their 20th anniversary, LifeLight has made the decision to end its three day music festival that takes place in Worthing, SD over Labor Day weekend each summer. The festival began 19 years ago on the lawn of a local church with the goal of bringing Christian music acts to SD, but the focus is now shifting to helping people in the Sioux Falls area.

The announcement came on Thursday, Feb. 2 through a post on the LifeLight Facebook page, with more details to come later in the week. The organization announced they will have three new main areas of focus, with one being helping the homeless. LifeLight founder Alan Greene and the organization felt that in the past few years that the large music festival was not focusing on their main goal, to spread the gospel, so it was about time to move in a new direction.

LifeLight, which used to be held at Wild Water West waterpark and relocated to Worthing, is going to be partnering up with nonprofit organizations and churches around the city to help the needy here in Sioux Falls. And while there will not be the big music festival, there will still be a smaller one called CityFest. At CityFest, everyone will get together to bring food and supplies, as well as give haircuts and other items to those in need. This is all a part of an initiative they have named CityServe, and they plan to have at least 50 or more churches join in on the relief effort.

The LifeLight music festival was very successful, starting at about 1,500 people attending in 1998, and increasing to more than 350,000 by their last festival. Because of their continued success and the name the organization, CityServe and CityFest should be able to continue their tradition of spreading Christianity to the Sioux Falls area.