SIERRA VISTA — Summer Concerts in the Park kicked off its new August schedule on Saturday night with a performance by Crossfaith, a Christian contemporary rock band from Douglas.

Nina Nelson, lead singer of Crossfaith, sings Saturday. (Photo by Ty Holland)

This annual concert series has traditionally been held on Thursdays in June and July, but frequent rains made it difficult to find bands who would play in July, said Megan Sneary, cultural and leisure supervisor for the city.

“A lot of our bands were not interested in playing — to set up, not be able to book any other gigs and then get rained out is frustrating,” she said.

Now the series is being held every Thursday in June and every Saturday in August, Sneary said. The switch to Saturdays avoids any conflicts with school, which will start this week in Sierra Vista.

“It’s not a late night, but it is a family event and so I really wanted it to be something even smaller kids can come to,” Sneary said.

The switch to Saturdays has also attracted some bands that would not normally be interested in participating.

The change to Saturday also worked for members of Crossfaith who all have full-time jobs and can only play on the weekends, Sneary said. “It gives Sierra Vista a chance to see a Douglas band, which is great and hopefully, it will get some Douglas folks over here to experience the park and buy dinner in town,” Sneary said.

Having a Christian rock band perform for a city event is always a fine line to walk, but the band was instructed to keep it appropriate by not preaching between songs, Sneary said. “We have music that covers all sorts of things, so I didn’t think having a Christian band was too much of a problem — good music is good music.”Bands performing in the series are required to play for free but receive the same promotion as any other city programs, Sneary said.

This was not a problem for Crossfaith, as the band never charges for a performance and only accepts donations, said Nina Nelson, lead singer. “We’re pretty happy going out there, sharing his message, and we’re not going to charge for it because his message is free and we’ll keep it free.

“Our main goal is to spread love of Christ through music,” Nelson said.

“We’re really easygoing, we’re not looking to become famous, sell a lot of albums or whatever — we just go where the Lord needs us.”

Crossfaith actually started off as two different bands in Douglas that ended up playing together in a garage about a year ago and hitting it off really well, said John Pedrosa, drummer. “One band needed the other.”

The band is devoted to giving the message of the Gospel, but its music is also inspired by a difficult past, Pedrosa said. “A lot of us have come out of some bad things — like drug addictions, alcoholism — came out of that through power of God in our lives. We celebrate that and talk about that.”

Nelson said, “We base a lot of our music off of what we’ve gone through and how God has helped through those situations and how he can help other people.”