KINGSTON, JAMAICA (ANS) -- Approximately 80,000 people flooded National Heroes Park - the largest open space in Kingston - on Saturday for the 10th annual Fun in the Son music festival. World evangelist Andrew Palau, singer Kirk Franklin, and a bevy of Jamaican artists set their sights on transforming the community through music, service, and the Good News of Jesus Christ. The festival was an official part of Jamaica’s Year of Jubilee, celebrating 50 years of national independence.

With a simple but powerful message, Andrew Palau urges the festival crowd to respond to God (Photo credit: Luis Palau Association 2012 - Photographer Alex Devine)

Audience and organizers alike say this year marks a milestone in the festival’s size and impact. “I was speechless,” read a tweet from Franklin on Sunday. “They didn’t come for me…they came to see the King!” Other performers included local favorites Junior Tucker, Goddy Goddy, Carlene Davis, DJ Nicholas, and Papa San, who closed the show with a dynamic and emotional performance.

Palau gave a potent, biblical message, sharing how he chose to follow Jesus at a similar event in Kingston in 1993. “What could you possibly be waiting for?” he asked as he invited the crowd to pray. “Don’t wait one more day to respond to God.” About 3,000 people made a decision to follow Jesus during the Fun in the Son campaign, including 1,164 who texted in their responses within 15 minutes of Palau’s message.

“It was beautiful,” said Ann-Marie Francis, who lives in Kingston. Francis also expressed a hope that the annual event would continue. “The community needs it. We need it bad…it can save a lot of souls.”

While the one-day festival proved to be the centerpiece of the initiative, the Fun in the Son campaign began one week earlier with outreaches in prisons, schools, and inner-city neighborhoods.

Skateboarding and BMX pros wow kids in Kingston’s Trench Town neighborhood (Photo credit: Luis Palau Association 2012 - Photographer Alex Devine)

On Wednesday evening, the Palau team led an outreach in the center of Trench Town, one of Kingston’s most volatile neighborhoods. Extreme sports athletes, returning for their second year of performing at Fun in the Son, rode through Trench Town’s streets, gathering children of all ages to the Ambassador Theater for an evening of music and a message of hope.

Festival organizers also took some of the music and extreme sports to two Jamaican prisons and shared the Good News of Jesus with about 2,500 inmates. Throughout the week, mission teams from Nebraska, Florida, and Oregon performed evangelistic outreaches and community service projects, such as painting classrooms and providing entertainment for children at local schools and orphanages.

Fun in the Son received extensive coverage by local media beginning weeks before the campaign. Palau and Chris Levy, president of local company and festival sponsor Jamaica Broilers Group Ltd., appeared on the country’s top morning show, Smile Jamaica. The Jamaica Gleaner, one of the country’s biggest newspapers, summarized the event with the headline, “Patrons Enjoy Bigger, Better ‘Fun In The Son’.”

Festival sponsors Best Dressed Chicken, its parent company Jamaica Broilers, and Glory Music have collaborated with local churches to host several evangelistic events across Jamaica, including the Luis Palau Crusade at which Andrew Palau accepted Jesus Christ. The full, gripping account of Andrew’s raw journey to faith is told in his debut book, The Secret Life of a Fool, available now. For more information about Andrew Palau and his ministry, visit www.andrew.palau.org.