"It's like the Christian version of Woodstock, basically, except it's neat and clean," said Victor Gibson, 37, from Manheim, Pennsylvania, who brought his wife and five children aged from five to 14 to the four-day festival.
"Take a look back at the crowd," he said, as thousands of fans held their arms in the air, pounding out the beat of a song by Christian band Kutless, whose sound Gibson likened to Metallica. "No rioting, no fighting, nobody getting beat up."
Lily Ellerson, a 12-year-old from Maryland, was one of nearly 200 people who were baptized in a pond on the final day of Creation, which drew around 70,000 people in late June.
Ellerson said she decided to be baptised after hearing a speaker at one of the side-events at the festival.
"I felt God was there," Ellerson said. "I could just see him, I could feel him all around me, and I thought I wanted to give my full heart to him."
Ellerson came with a church youth group of 47 people, including her cousin Emily White, who volunteers at the church.
"You really do feel like, wow, we are in the Kingdom right now and right here," White said. "You're living in a community of 70,000 people, without the benefit of electricity or water, yet everybody loves each other, you don't hear about things being stolen or fights.
"We really are living the way God made us to live."
One in four Americans count themselves as evangelical Protestants, a growing movement with serious clout in a country where religion and politics often mix. Creation is officially non-denominational and it drew some Catholics, but the rhetoric of most speakers was that of "born again" Christians.
GOD IS "SMILING"
The highlight of the festival for some was the baptism.
Barefoot and wearing shorts and tee-shirts, they waded thigh-deep into the pond to be dunked by pastors who prayed with them, then submerged them entirely in the water, cheered on by hundreds of emotional family members and friends."Can you imagine God smiling right now?" one woman said as she watched.
Now in its 30th year and growing bigger every year, the festival is in many ways like any secular summer music festival - thousands of young people camping out, getting muddy in the rain and eagerly hunting down their heroes for autographs.
But these music fans wore T-shirts with slogans such as "Virginity Rocks" and "Mosh for Jesus", the dress code encouraged modesty and some friendly fans stood around offering free hugs to passersby.
And unlike other rock festivals there was a curfew and alcohol and drugs were strictly off limits.
Between the music, teenagers and students attended seminars on abortion, on "Success God's Way" and one called "BeYOUtiful" for young girls.
Matthew Benjamin appealed to one group to help spread the word of Jesus to students in China. He urged volunteers to step forward and release brightly colored balloons as a symbol of their pledge to give a year of their lives to mission work.
