There’s a gap in Christian heavy music, and we’ve both seen it from opposite sides of the stage.

We’re John and Karleigh, and we’re building Christcore Fest, an artist first heavy music festival landing April 24-25, 2027 at Wilson Logistics Arena in Springfield, Missouri. Metal, metalcore, hardcore, deathcore, even a crabcore band on the lineup. If it’s heavy and it’s chasing Jesus, it belongs here.

Twenty Years of Music, Twenty Years of Content

John has spent about 23 years in this industry. It started in college, when a class assignment to design a show poster. It turned into him actually booking the band and watching 400 people show up. He thought he’d cracked the code. He hadn’t. He’d just gotten lucky with a stack of posters and a lot of nerve. Since then he’s played in bands, promoted shows, tour managed, and worked stage crew. Really he’s done it all which means he’s seen this industry from every possible angle. He’s also a therapist, follow his side of things at @theheavymetaltherapist.

Karleigh brings the other half: 20 years of content and social media experience, starting back when she was 12. She’s worked as a social media manager, built out content strategy for other brands, and now this festival has become her full-time focus. Find her at @karleighwalkswithjesus.

John and Karleigh are also married, one year in as of this year. Between the two of them, they’ve already made incredible things happen. Well, them with the Lord behind them.

Why Christian Artists Deserve Better

John’s band once drove 900 miles for a show and got paid in grilled cheese sandwiches, floor space, and cans of Monster instead of gas money. That’s not a rare story in this scene. Christian artists get underpaid constantly, and because it’s so normalized, most of them don’t even push back. When Christcore Fest reaches out to bands to ask their rate, the number that comes back is often so low it wouldn’t cover their gas.

There’s this idea floating around that doing what God’s called you to do should come with sacrifice, and to some extent that’s true. But somewhere along the way, that turned into an expectation that Christian artists should basically operate at a loss. The Christian music industry does a worse job compensating its artists than the secular one does, and that’s backwards. These are the artists who’ve shaped so many of us. They deserve to be able to keep doing this.

That’s the gap Christcore Fest exists to close.

What Artist First Actually Means

Artist First isn’t a tagline. It means the festival will sacrifice on nearly everything before it minimizes what artists get paid, because that’s the floor, not the ceiling. Every band gets a full day sheet before they arrive: exactly where to be, who to contact, even the Wi-Fi password, so nothing is left to chance once they’re on-site. Nobody should be stressed about gas money or where they’re sleeping. This is one weekend a year some of these artists get to just play, and Christcore Fest wants that weekend to actually feel like a gift instead of one more thing to survive.

And it isn’t only about the bands. That same standard extends to vendors, volunteers, and everyone else who makes the weekend happen.

A Festival Built Backwards

Christcore Fest is planning for somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000 people, a number that tends to catch people off guard. The process that got here was backwards from how most festivals get built: bands were locked in before there was even a venue to put them in. Every time the scope felt settled, it grew again.

That growth led to Wilson Logistics Arena in Springfield, Missouri, which felt right the moment John and Karleigh walked in. The team there was accommodating from the first conversation, and it wasn’t until weeks later that the size of what had come together actually sank in. From the start, the posture has been that if this festival ever becomes about them instead of about God, it should be taken away, full stop. Every time it’s felt like too much, it hasn’t been their own strength holding it together.

It’s the same posture behind Gideon’s story in Judges 7, where God cut an army of 10,000 down to 300 and sent them into battle with jars and torches instead of weapons, on purpose, so there’d be no question of who actually won that fight. That’s the model here. Obedience is the job. The outcome isn’t up to them.

What’s Next for Christcore Fest

There’s a lot still being figured out in real time, and that’s being said openly rather than pretending otherwise. If you want to follow the build as it happens, from bands and venue logistics to everything in between, get on the email list for updates on lineup announcements, hotel info, and behind the scenes details that won’t go out anywhere else.

And if you want to wear it before the weekend even gets here, the merch shop has shirts and stickers for people who don’t water down their faith or their playlist, including the Fearless Tee which is great for anyone who feels the fear and does it anyway.