The I Believe gospel concert was not “a prim and proper stoosh kind of event” as warned by one of the hosts at the marathon production held at the Wildey Gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex on Sunday night.
It was a Christian party where chairs were just for brief recovery.
It lived up to every imagination of kicking off shoes and having a good time to “transform lives and to create an uplifting and inclusive entertaining experience for people from all walks of life”.
The hyped audience was ready to sing and dance from the downbeat.
With the niceties of sponsorship out of the way the announcement of the first act, Sanctuary Empowerment Centre was greeted with screaming uninhibitedness as the group opened with the theme of the concert in song I Believe. They spread a message of Jesus giving “us victory over our enemies” and “praise” with raised modulating voices setting the mood “for Christian party where everybody was invited”.
The momentum of crowd interaction heightened with the appearances of Sherry-Ann Maughan, Pastor John Yarde and Neesha Woodz who alternated sessions.
Maughan’s opening No Dilemma was authentically inspirational which seemed to have reflected a lived experience. It also set the platform for a classy performance both in song and praise based on God’s gift of Grace.
Yarde, a multi-genre artist, who was everything to the now fully involved gospel fans, opened with Everything. He took the audience to a fever pitch with Christian Party. He alighted the stage and without much coercion noted in the song “you best believe I don’t have time to make enemies”. He formed a conga line where he invited Christian Party “granny” et al to join. Christian is a very infectious song.
Woodz was, as her song heralded “Amazing”, underscoring her Jesus was amazing. The entire both patrons on the floor and were stoked by Woodz’s session. for the ages.
The rapport between hosts heralded her belief that entire gymnasium, and the wings, session. It was one hosts Joel Manning and Raphael Saul and the thousands that filled
the popular show venue was engaging though running on a bit too long. Nonetheless, the audience enjoyed every moment.
The locals prepared an excellent atmosphere for the headliners foreign acts of Bahamas-based Trinidadian Sherwin Gardner and Nigerian Tim Godfrey.
Gardner, who has chalked up a number of hits over the years, launched his almost hour stint with Fixed. He did not disappoint.
It was great to see Godfrey on stage as he ministered in song doing his popular Nara and Big God which immediately got a standing ovation where the audience sang along.
The concert was a success. It had all the elements of a good evening out.
There was nothing anglicised about it.
It was high energy all the way through.
Congratulations for the prompt start, but as the show rolled on many patrons left during the performance of Godfrey, who was clearly enjoying himself with the fans who converged at the front of the stage minutes up to 11 p.m. (JS)
