Nationally renowned Christian singer Jeremy Camp to star at fair
Camp. Thunderstorm.
It’s not a recipe for a disastrous weekend – it’s two-thirds of FaithFest on the Fairgrounds, planned for the 2026 Steele County Free Fair.
Jeremy Camp will headline the Aug. 19 Christian music night, with special guests Jon Reddick and Thunderstorm Artis.
“We’re making it more of a family event,” said SCFF Manager Scott Kozelka, “and if we’re doing it, we’re going to do it right.”
That will include packages for youth groups or church groups; staff has been sending Save the Date cards to churches and youth groups.
“This is a top-notch lineup,” said Rhonda Bennett, with the SCFF. “I like Jeremy Camp, but our special guests are awesome, too.”
The price is right, too, Kozelka said.
“What we’re charging to see three national acts is unheard of,” he said.
Tickets are available online at https://tickets.scff.org/p/tickets.
The music begins at 6 p.m. with Artis, a Hawaiian native who grew up surrounded by creativity, which shaped his blend of folk, pop, soul and gospel.
He rose to national prominence as a finalist on “The Voice” and later captured the hearts of millions as a Top 5 finalist on “American Idol.”
Artis is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist; his newest single is “I Just Want You to Know,” a reminder of what matters most in life and love.
That message dovetails nicely with the music of Camp, Billboard’s No. 2 Christian artist of the decade.
Much of the musicians’ work is about family, Kozelka said.
Between 2002 and 2025, Camp released 12 albums, five of them RIAA-certified as gold. He has sold more than 6.5 million albums, with 45 No. 1 singles across all formats.
He is currently touring with Toby Mac, including a concert last weekend in Minneapolis.
Camp’s music has earned him numerous awards and nominations across the Christian and secular music industries, including five GMA Dove Awards, a Grammy nomination, three American Music Award nominations and four ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Awards.
Outside of music, Camp had an international theatrical movie release in 2020 called “I Still Believe,” which hit No. 1 in the box office opening weekend. The film depicted his life story of the love and loss of his first wife after a battle with cancer.
Camp, who is expected to take the stage about 8:30 p.m., has always written songs about his experiences and continues to write from the deep places of his heart.
Reddick, the main special guest, will precede Camp.
A worship pastor and songwriter, he has a heart for the church and the songs that pour out from congregations into world.
On Aug. 13, 2017, he found himself at a crossroads. It was a Sunday morning and he was on deck to lead worship. But that Sunday was different.
He’d spent the previous two days hearing about the events unfolding in Charlottesville, Va., where white supremacists surrounded a small group of Black protesters on the University of Virginia campus. The protest, which quickly turned violent, garnered national attention and resulted in three deaths.
“There was so much discord surrounding that event,” Reddick said. “It was really difficult being a minority in a moment like that. It was a really lonely feeling. All I could think about was my 12-year-old son and how someone could hate him before ever getting to know him. It was the first time I’d allowed myself feel the pain of racism in a deep way. In that moment, I wished I had the right song, something that could talk about hope.”
Reeling from the hurt of racism and searching for a way to communicate it to the congregation, Reddick asked God to give him the words to express what he was feeling.
A few days later, Reddick went to a songwriting session with some friends, where the song “You Keep Hope Alive” was birthed. “It felt like God had answered my prayer from that Sunday morning,” Reddick said.
The song was incorporated into the church’s worship service, where it instantly connected. What started as a personal prayer to deal with his own hurt became an anthem for the congregation.
Reddick has worked on songwriting with artists like Matt Redman, Tommy Sims, Josh Kerr, Nicole C. Mullen and Sheryl Crow.
“We’re excited,” Kozelka said of the lineup. “We want this to succeed; we want people to get excited every year about our Wednesday night” entertainment.
Thursday is tribute night, with Hairball; Friday is country night, with performers Randy Houser and special guest Cori Kennedy, a Dodge County native who found fame in the last season of “The Voice.”
The 2026 Steele County Free Fair runs from Aug. 18-23.