NASHVILLE, TN—October 22, 2008—In an exclusive announcement, HearItFirst.com has confirmed the artist line-up for The Winter Jam 2009 Tour Spectacular, Christian music’s largest annual musical tour. tobyMac, the “GMA Artist Of The Year” for 2008, will headline the tour with special guests Hawk Nelson, 2008 “GMA New Artist Of The Year” Brandon Heath, “GMA New Artist Of The Year” 2006 The Afters, and new Gotee Recording artist, Stephanie Smith.
 
The 10-week tour launches January 8, 2009 in Roanoke, VA, and will conclude at the Sommet Center in Nashville, TN on March 15th. Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning, NewSong will host the high-energy event for the 14th consecutive year, which will feature special guest speaker Tony Nolan. Additional Winter Jam artists will be announced over the next few weeks.
 
Winter Jam is Christian music’s largest annual tour. Last year’s total paid attendance was 311,836 with an average nightly attendance of 9,172. As a result, Winter Jam was the fourth ranked tour on Pollstar’s 2008 First Quarter Ticket Sales Chart topping Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, The Police and Foo Fighters.
 
In spite of escalating prices due to a challenging economy, Winter Jam will maintain their popular “no tickets” policy that allows consumers to simply pay $10 at the door for admission.
 
“Year after year we’ve seen God’s hand on Winter Jam,” said Eddie Carswell, founding member of NewSong and Winter Jam originator. “Over 311,000 people attended Winter Jam 2008 and out of those over 53,000 made a decision or rededication to follow Christ. As if that wasn’t amazing enough, over 4,300 orphaned children around the world were sponsored through Holt International. Our prayer is that God would continue to use this tour for His glory and to impact tens of thousands more in 2009.”

Corporate sponsors for Winter Jam 2009 include Holt International, a world leader in international adoption and child welfare, MegaVoice, an international Biblical literacy organization, and HearItFirst.com, the leading Christian music online site. HearItFirst.com will be hosting the official Winter Jam site, which will launch on November 4, 2008 at HearItFirst.com/WinterJam or by going to jamtour.com.

Here are the dates, markets, and venues for Winter Jam 2009:

1/8/09                         Roanoke, VA                        Roanoke Civic Center

1/9/09                         Chattanooga, TN                 UTC McKenzie Arena

1/10/09                       Fayetteville, NC                    Crown Coliseum

1/11/09                       Charlotte, NC                        Time Warner Cable Arena

1/15/09                       Augusta, GA                         James Brown Arena

1/16/09                       Tampa, FL                             Sun Dome

1/18/09                       Macon, GA                            Macon Coliseum

1/23/09                       Peoria, IL                               Peoria Civic Center

1/24/09                       Des Moines, IA                     Veterans Memorial Auditorium

1/25/09                       St. Charles, MO                    Family Arena

1/29/09                       Cincinnati, OH                     Cincinnati Gardens

1/30/09                       Cleveland, OH                      Wolstein Center

1/31/09                       Columbus, OH                     Schottenstein Center

2/5/09                         Southaven, MS                    DeSoto Civic Center

2/6/09                         Little Rock, AR                      ALLTEL Arena

2/7/09                         Birmingham, AL                   BJCC Arena

2/8/09                         Duluth, GA                            Arena at Gwinnett Center

2/13/09                       Greensville, SC                    BI-LO Center

2/14/09                       Jacksonville, FL                   Veterans Memorial Arena

2/15/09                       Mobile, AL                             USA Mitchell Center

2/20/09                       Columbia, SC                       Colonial Life Arena

2/21/09                       Greensboro, NC                   Greensboro Coliseum

2/22/09                       Norfolk, VA                            Norfolk Scope Arena

2/26/09                       Oklahoma City, OK              Ford Center

2/27/09                       Tulsa, OK                              Mabee Center

2/28/09                       Kansas City, MO                  Sprint Center

3/1/09                         Council Bluffs, IA                Mid-America Center

3/6/09                         Knoxville, TN                        Thompson-Boling Arena

3/7/09                         Lexington, KY                       Rupp Arena

3/8/09                         Tupelo, MS                            BancorpSouth Arena

3/12/09                       Grand Rapids, MI                 Van Andel Arena

3/13/09                       Ft. Wayne, IN                        Allen County War Memorial Coliseum

3/14/09                       Ypsilanti, MI                          EMU Convocation Center

3/15/09                       Nashville, TN                        Sommet Center

 

About HearItFirst.com

Now boasting more than 182,000 members, HearItFirst.com has become the definitive online community for fans wanting exclusive in-depth access to artists. Among member benefits are free daily updates, music downloads, weekly newsletters, early viewing of upcoming music videos, artist interviews updated daily, and behind-the-scenes footage from live events. The site also maintains an entire channel devoted solely to the latest in indie music. Versatile, fresh and timely content has come to define the site, which receives more than 500,000 visits a month and in excess of 1.2million monthly page views. For more information, visit www.HearItFirst.com