A new breed of entrepreneurs has risen, selling Christian CDs, T-shirts, and hats at Christian rock festivals, themselves becoming an industry in their own right.
Dave Lula, who follows festivals around the country selling his wares, says he can sell 3,000 shirts in a summer.
"I travel to all the festivals, dozens of them, all summer long, then I do smaller events in California during winter," he said.
His T-shirts say things like, "I Mosh for Jesus," "Hetero-Boy," "Religion Is Dead, Jesus Is Not," and "Hardcore Christian."
At this year's Creation East festival, in Mount Union, Pennsylvania last month, 50,000 people attended, each paying $73 for a four-day ticket.
That's $3,650,000 just for tickets.
Other T-shirts at the festival read, "Body Piercing Saved My Life," "Eternal Riders," "Jesus Freak," and "Do the Jew," meaning to emulate Jesus.
Shoppers said they came to the fair specifically to buy merchandise.
Heather Farner, a banker from Baltimore, said, "Where else are we going to find this kind of stuff? We can't buy it in a mall. And Christian bookstores won't carry band T-shirts."
Article comments
1 - Dustin
Nothing makes me sicker then those T-shirts. Total Hype. Sick.
http://freecalifornia.typepad.com/ freecalifornia/2004/02/mark_loves_hill.html
2 - D. Gates
Love the idea! Let's wear our faith and show our love and support for Christian rock bands!
3 - yael
do the jew has nothing to do with Jesus. It means do (as in have sex with) the jew (that's wearing the tshirt. But Iguess it could mean whatever the person that is reading it thinks it means
4 - reggie von woic
i'm catholic so we're not into such things.
do the Jew? LOL!
Yael, i'm sure it wasn't meant in that way; think dances... like "do the locomotion" or "do the twist" or "do the hustle"