On March 9th I took several youths from our church youth group to Winter Jam ’24 at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State University. For many of the kids, it was their first concert. Everyone had a good time and would like to go again next year.
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This was the 30th Winter Jam concert (out of 38) this year. Winter Jam was started by the Christian band, NewSong. The idea was to provide an affordable concert that would help break up the winter blues. At first it was just NewSong, then it was NewSong and Friends, then it was January Jam, and for the past 28 years it has been Winter Jam.
There are no advance ticket sales for Winter Jam. Entry is $15 per person (cash only) at the door. There was also a $20 (cash only) parking fee. During the concert, they also take a love offering.
The doors opened at 5pm, which is the same time that the Pre-Jam started. Since the concert is open seating, we hurried in to the arena so we could make sure that we could find enough seats to all sit together. Pre-Jam featured some less well-known bands and gave the kids something to listen to before the bigger names took the stage.
Some of the artists that were part of Winter Jam ’24 were New Song, Seventh Day Slumber, Cain, Lecrae, Katy Nichole, John Wesley, and Crowder. The gospel message was presented by Zane Black. With such an extensive line-up, the concert wasn’t over until 10pm.
Outside food and drink is not permitted at the Bryce Jordan Center but all the (overpriced) food stands inside were open. All the artists that performed also had stands set up to sell their merch.
My Takeaway
While loud concerts are not my favorite thing, I enjoyed the time that I got to spend with the youth. The teens chatted excitedly about the concert most of the way home. The price can’t be beat, especially considering that the concert lasted over 4 hours. I would highly recommend Winter Jam to anyone looking for a contemporary Christian music concert. You might just want to bring along some earplugs 😉