|TOP|The Parachute Festival 06, one of the largest Christian music events in the world concluded yesterday with a record of four “fantastic” days of worship with top international acts such as Delirious?, Planetshakers, and Reuben Morgan.

During the evening of the festival “amazing” fireworks lit up the night sky, celebrating 15 years of the Parachute Festival, according to the Parachute website.

The event, which started 27th January in Hamilton city of New Zealand, drew an audience of more than 20,000, with around 16,000 people having slept on the camp-site during the event. Since its start, the festival has grown from a small concert on a farm to one of the largest events of its kind internationally.

|AD|Besides performances by top musicians, the festival provided the congregation with sermons from legendary speakers including renowned evangelist and harvest Christian Crusades founder Greg Laurie and leading Australian pastors Phil Baker and Wayne Alcorn.

“We want to emphasise that we’re a festival which wants to appeal to a mainstream audience and provide an event that caters to the youth of this nation and specifically the unchurched. So the festival is changing and people have to change with it,” says Tanya Cathro, Parachute 06 media area head.

According to the event’s website, a special moment of the event was the response given to the Hope Rwanda, an organisation founded by Australian musician Darlene Zschech, with the purpose to aid the Rwandans who’ve been spiritually and physically affected by the 1994 genocide. Parachute attendees generously gave over US$50,000, which will be used to build two orphanages in the poverty stricken country of Rwanda.

For more information and updates on the Parachute 06, go to http://www.parachutemusic.com.