Overview

The invitation and the details

We would like to invite you to participate in the Huntington University and Star 88.3, Battle of the Bands, presented by Reusser Design and Sweetwater Sound, Inc. First, we need to hear your music and as such you need to submit your best demo stuff to us online.

The top 30 bands will be selected and posted on Star 88.3 so that our listeners, along with any other fans, can vote on their favorites. The top 24 bands as voted by the people of this great land of ours will then have the opportunity to battle live in the Sweetwater Sound state-of-the-art performance theater at its World Headquarters in Fort Wayne, IN. These live battles will take place on May 7th and 14th with twelve bands performing on each day.

The top four bands (two from May 7th and two from May 14th) will move on and the top vote getter will receive a three song multitrack recording with video of the band performing live on stage at Sweetwater's performance theater. The package includes a full day of production (invite your friends to be a part of the live recording) with professional audio engineers and videographers, plus professional editing, mixing and mastering. This will be the perfect video of your band playing live to hand to anyone interested in booking your band and for you to use to promote your band on the web. Back to the Battle!

This is where the Battle takes and exciting new twist. In 2011, our live rounds become a regional qualifier for the Battle For Christ, a much larger program that will connect our bands to greater opportunities. The four finalists from the two performances at Sweetwater will be invited to perform in the semi-final round of the Battle for Christ at Chattanooga, TN on June 3rd, 2011. The top four bands (eight total) will move on to the final round.

The final round will take place the next day on June 4th at JFEST in East Ridge, TN. The winner will have the opportunity to open for The Afters, Mandisa and Sanctus Real on July 10th at the Three Rivers Festival in Fort Wayne, IN and for another major label Christian artist on August 25th, 2011 at Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, TN. The top two bands from the Battle For Christ will move on to perform in the Ascenxion Scout Project with eight other bands at Ichthus in Wilmore, KY (June 15th-18th).

The grand prize winner of the Ascenxion Scout Project will get a 10 minute slot on the Ichthus Main Stage and a 30 minute slot on the Ichthus Deep End Stage. The grand prize winner will also move on to the national competition to compete against the other 14 festival winners. The second place band will receive a slot on the Ichthus Deep End Stage The third and fourth place bands will each receive slots on the Ichthus Edge Stage. The remaining 6 bands will all receive a slot on one of the Ichthus Indie stages sometime during the festival. Each band that qualifies for the final battle at Ichthus will have the opportunity to submit a biography and several mp3s to be used on the Ichthus radio station that broadcasts during the festival.

The Acenxion Scout winner from Ichthus will move on to the CFA National Talent Search Competition with a chance at an opportunity to perform at 14 Christian festivals in 2012. The Ascenxion Scout winner will compete against the other festival finalists and will be both voted on through a National fan voting page and considered by the CFA (Christian Festival Association) National Talent Search panel. Fan voting will take place between September 15 and October 31. The 2011 CFA National Talent Search Winner will be selected by considering both the fan voting results and panel judges' voting selection.

The ultimate winner of the CFA National Talent Search will be Final winner to be selected and notified by November 7, 2011. The CFA National Talent Search Winner receives:
• Full performance slot at each participating 2012 CFA festival (stage and time slot TBD).
• Inclusion on artist list of each participating 2012 CFA festival.
• Featuring of National winner on all participating CFA member festival websites.
• Listing on all participating CFA member festival Facebook pages promoting winner.
• 3 songs recorded free in Chicago land. Artist is responsible for travel / meals / lodging. We'll take care of tracking / mixing.

Does this sound exciting? Well for more information about the Battle For Christ go to www.thebattleforchrist.net or for the Ascenxion Scout Project and Ichthus go to www.ichthusfestival.org/info/ascenxion.