Around 200 people gathered outside Juanita K. Hammons Hall Saturday to counter-protest a planned picket by the Westboro Baptist Church, but the Westboro group never showed up.
The Kansas church has sparked outrage around the country for its pickets, which feature profane and derogatory language warning people about the danger of hell. The group had posted on its website an intention to protest a concert at the hall by Adam Lambert, who is gay.
The group typically preaches that God hates gay people, but also preaches God hates Jews, Catholics and America. It pickets the funerals of dead soldiers, saying the deaths are God's punishment of America for tolerating homosexuality.
Local college students organized the counter protest on Facebook.
"Because they didn't show up, instead of a protest, now its just a celebration," said organizer Adam Crawford. "It was a great way to get together and show the community what we are all about."
Jason Dallam, 19, wore a rainbow flag cape.
He said he first went to a protest against Westboro earlier this summer when the church group appeared outside a Lady Gaga concert. A few years earlier the Westboro group showed up at a memorial service for Dallam's half-brother Ryan, a soldier who died in Iraq. He never saw the group there, because a group of motorcycle riders kept a barricade.
This summer, friends encouraged Dallam to protest against the Westboro group in Oklahoma.
"I realized they aren't as tough as they pretend to be," said Dallam. "I think they are a bunch of crazies stuck in a world where they think everything they think is right."
Drury student Brandon Landers said he has been traveling to events where Westboro pickets, documenting the events for a photo project.
"This is by far the largest anti-protest we've seen," said Landers. "I saw 20 counter-protesters at most at the other places, so this is amazing."
Oklahoma City resident Julie Willits snapped pictures of the counter-protesters and said she was happy that church group, who she described as hateful people who don't know the meaning of Christianity, were no-shows.
"If the world had more people who were just as kind as Adam Lambert, you wouldn't need this crap," said Willits, who has met the performer twice.
"All this stuff he's put up with, he never once turned around and said 'I hate you guys, too.'"
The crowd dwindled as the concert was about to begin, then Lambert ducked out to thank those left.
"He was there two or three minutes, and kind of walked the sidewalk signing people's posters and stuff," said Adam Crawford. "It was kind of surprising."
Hundreds of people gathered to counter-protest Westboro Baptist Church. (Amber Arnold / News-Leader)
At left: Singer Adam Lambert thanks some of about 200 people who came out in Springfield Saturday night to counter-protest a planned protest of Lambert's show by the Westboro Baptist Church. The church protesters did not show up. (Amber Arnold / News-Leader)
Below: Hundreds of people gathered to counter-protest Westboro Baptist Church during the Lambert concert at Juanita K. Hammons Hall on Saturday. (Amber Arnold / News-Leader)
Okay. I've had a bit more sleep now and time to ponder the awesome that was last night, lol. So I thought I'd do a write-up of my very first Adam concert experience.
First, I want to mention that I've not closely followed Adam before this. I watched him on Idol and enjoyed his performances and I've bought a couple of his singles. So I guess you could consider me like the average person outside of the fandom, although I probably know a bit more about Adam since I'm a big Idol watcher and follow several artists who came from there.
When I heard that Adam was doing a show in Springfield I was SO excited because artists as big as Adam never come near my hometown. I kind of live in the middle nowhere. And Springfield is only a 2 hour drive for me. So my friends and I got tickets. Unfortunately we ended up pretty far back in the 1st balcony but we were determined to have a good time no matter what!
Allison was FIERCE. I also enjoyed her on Idol and she has only gotten better since then. My friend said she wanted her hair, lol.
I took a couple videos of her that I'm hoping to put up tomorrow.
Then intermission. Oh my gosh, totally the best intermission in the history of the world! What a fun crowd we had in Springfield. I saw that everything that happened has been relayed on this thread already so I won't rehash it but my friends and I laughed and sang and laughed and had an awesome time. Intermission was an absolute blast. I will probably never say that again as long as I live. ;P
Then it was time for ADAM! I really was blown away. As I said before, I have not watched any of the YT videos of this tour so I was going in completely in the dark about what to expect. I had heard it was a good show but nothing specific.
Wow. Adam is an amazing showman. His musical timing is spot on, as is his performing/dancing. I was totally dancing along in front of my chair -- and so were lots of other people in the audience.
I had never heard most of the songs he performed. It was so interesting to hear a song for the first time as a live performance. I just LOVED Fever. Oh my gosh. I was yelling and laughing and making a fool of myself. I also really enjoyed IIHY. Which is strange since I wasn't totally sold on it when I heard it on the radio. But I just really felt it last night. Mad World / WLL was another highlight for me.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I had to look some of these songs up to figure out their names before posting the videos. I won't have that problem anymore though! :P And I totally have an album that I need to go buy now...
BTW, I enjoyed the whole show...the songs I mentioned above are just a few that stand out in my mind.
Also! About the videos that I posted last night/this morning. I had to upload them in an LQ format since I have a superslow internet connection at home. I plan to take my laptop to work with me tomorrow and upload them in the original, higher quality format. I'll be loading them to my other YT channel. And then I'll be deleting the existing lower quality videos.
I'll be sure to leave them up for a few days with a link to the new videos.
I can post a link to the new videos here too, if you guys want me to?
Anyway. Thank you all for being so nice and welcoming and friendly to a new Adam fan!! He's pretty freaking awesome. <3
P.S. Sorry this is so long!! Sheesh.
BlueIndigoSky' date='Aug 8th 2010, 11:23 PM
KSPR (local news): Adam Lambert Concert Met With Peaceful Demonstration http://bit.ly/cbl7DA
2 minutes ago via TweetDeck
Adam Lambert Concert Met With Peaceful Demonstration[/size]
By KSPR News
Story Created: Aug 8, 2010 at 9:11 PM CDT
Story Updated: Aug 8, 2010 at 9:25 PM CDT
Adam lambert took the stage Saturday night at Juanita K Hammons Hall, but not all showed up to hear his music.
Hundreds of protesters showed up, not protesting Lambert's concert, but the Westboro Baptist Church.
Westboro is nationally known for spreading anit-gay messages and showing up at soldier's funerals.
Word circulated on Facebook that the church was planning on showing up to the show, but it never did.
One concert goer saw Westboro Church at a previous concert and says Springfield's display was much more calm.
"We were in Kansas City for the Adam Lambert concert and the signs and people were just all full of hate. It was just horrible, it was sad. And this is just the opposite. Its all full of love and its just the kind of people Adam has brought out here tonight," said concert-goer Judy Miller.
Lambert is an openly gay musician.
About 300 people showed up holding signs declaring equality and a message of anti-hate.
And apparently I'm gonna be ordering the Japanese version of Adam's album sometime this week. Do they have that on Amazon? LOL, I'll check there later.
I managed to get the higher quality versions of my Springfield videos uploaded today. I also added them to my Mediafire account, for anyone who would like to download the original video for themselves. They're pretty big files, so be aware that most of them are between 300-600mb. I put the download link in the item description for each video on Youtube.
Here are the individual links: (these are the same videos I posted before, just uploaded in higher quality)
Whew. Hopefully there's not a max link limits for posts here. :P
I'll be deleting the lower quality videos I have up right now sometime later this week. Hopefully no one gets confused when that happens. Posted links to the new videos on all of them.
OK. Enough from me. I hope you're have having a great Monday!!