Gay Christian Star Who Was Kicked Out of Festival Makes Surprise Appearance on Stage

Trey Pearson, who came out as gay earlier this year, made a surprise appearance at this year's Joshua Fest.

Among those most surprised to see him? Probably the people who got him kicked out of the event in the first place.

When Pearson, who is the lead singer of the Christian rock band Everyday Sunday, found out that he and his band would be performing at the festival in California, he shared his sentiments online.

"Overwhelmed and honored!" he wrote on Facebook. "I will be the first openly gay artist to ever play a major Christian music festival!"

The feeling was short lived as he was dropped from the festival soon after. Eleven members of the festival's production team threatened to walk out of the event if Pearson was allowed to perform, Billboardreports. The team of about 14 members would have had major difficulties continuing the show without most of its team and eventually was forced to comply.

A heartbroken Pearson decided not to publicly announce his departure from the lineup out of respect for the festival. He did attend, however, and while watching the performance of the band Five Iron Frenzy, Pearson was asked to come up on stage for their closing song.

Five Iron Frenzy was already one of Pearson's favorite bands growing up so the fact they they allowed him to sing one of their biggest songs live on stage was incredible.

"I believe that everything happened the way it was supposed to happen," owner of the festival Aaron Diello said. "God took a bad situation and made it glorify him. Maybe not the way Trey and myself foresaw or wanted it to pan out, but if it didn't happen the way it did, then I think the result would have been different, maybe even manufactured or forced."