This year’s luncheon featured three artists, one of which was performing at Night of Joy. During the event the artists take turns visiting the different tables and chatting with the media present. I like this format because it isn’t a formal interview time, it is time to chat. Once everyone got seated we had a special visit from Mark Hall and Casting Crowns. They weren’t able to stay for lunch, because they had to do their sound check, but they said “Hi!” and posed for pictures.

The first artist at our table was Hannah Kerr. I had the pleasure of meeting Hannah last year at this luncheon. She also leads worship at her home church, and attends college! She is currently on tour with Casting Crowns and Matt Maher.

Next we had Brandon Heath. I was excited to spend some time chatting with Brandon because he is friends with my son Aaron. I met Brandon backstage when he was here in town for the “Brandisa” tour a few years ago. As soon as I told him we were Aaron’s parents he freaked out and wanted to take a selfie to send to Aaron. Brandon also wants to start blogging about his travels so we helped him with some ideas about how to get started.

Last up was Tim Timmons. This was the 3rd time I’ve met Tim at this luncheon. Honestly, the first time I met him, I didn’t like him. He was highly opinionated and off-putting. I am pleased to say, probably thanks to his publicist, he has mellowed some over the years and was more enjoyable to talk to. We spent a lot of time with him helping him beef up his social media presence. I also got to hear a few of Tim’s songs at Night of Joy in the Jostens Center on Saturday night.

I love this event and I am always honored to be invited by Disney. I can’t wait for next year!

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I am pleased to say that, in my opinion, moving the event to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex was a wonderful idea. Holding the event at WWoS (Wide World of Sports) had some positives I hadn’t thought of originally. All 3 venues had seating available and 2 of the venues had air conditioning! On top of that, they were just better concert venues. As awesome as it is to worship in front of the castle, it isn’t awesome if you are in the throngs of people packed in all the way down Main Street USA.

The headliner concerts were held in Champions Stadium, a baseball stadium where the Atlanta Braves hold their spring training. Here we saw Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, For King and Country and Newsboys in a stadium concert setting with great audio and lighting effects. VIP floor seating was available for an additional $20 per person per night.

The HP Fieldhouse was home to concerts by Matthew West, MercyMe, Switchfoot, Red, and Thousand Foot Krutch. In this building the floor was open for standing and the arena seating was open. The Jostens Center was a multi-purpose venue holding concerts for up and coming acts like Tim Timmons, Veridia and Zealand Worship. Unfortunately, the audio in this venue wasn’t nearly as well done as at the other locations. It was very bass heavy and often downright painful to listen too. This stage was also used for some artist Q & As on Saturday night. This building was also home to character meet and greets, classic video games, Minute to Win It competitions and the first ever artist merchandise tables at Night of Joy.

Down on the “Fields of Joy” were food trucks for additional dining options, a great DJ and from 5-9pm there were fun athletic competitions. While the “Fields of Joy” activities couldn’t take the place of a ride on Space Mountain, it was nice to have some activity options for kids who wanted a break from the concerts.

It has already been announced that Night of Joy 2017 will again take place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and that there will be even more musical acts. Mark your calendar now for September 8-9, 2017. Event tickets aren’t on sale yet but its not too early to book your Walt Disney World Resort Stay. Just Email Me for more information!

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We actually got to work the kid’s races. On Saturday 1500 kids from 9 months-13 years old competed in Diaper Derby, 100, 200 and 400 meter dashes and a 1 mile run. We had the best job too! We got to give the medals to the participants after they crossed the finish line! Those who are interested to bet on their favorite sports, can easily do so on sites such as sbobet88 indonesia.

We arrived at the Jostens Center at 7:30am and signed in for our shift. We received our t-shirts and a snack voucher. We changed into our t-shirts, went to the snack bar to retrieve our snacks and water and then waited for our marching orders. When all 21 event volunteers were ready we headed out to the track where we were divided up into several different jobs. The actual races began at 10am so we spent the time before that hanging the medals on the rack and then helping with pre-race crowd control.

It was so much fun to put a medal around the necks of children who had just accomplished a big goal that they had been training for. If you live in central Florida and would like to know more about voluntEARing for Disney sporting events visit their website here.

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