WS Chronicle

Photo by Timothy Ramsey

BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY 

THE CHRONICLE

Unlike last year’s rain soaked affair, the first day of this year’s Gospel Fest at the Dixie Classic Fair was a perfect early autumn afternoon.  That was the perfect backdrop for what was to come. This year’s lineup of performers had something for everyone no matter their age.

The acts at Gospel Fest, which The Chronicle is helping to sponsor, ranged from traditional choirs, a mime ministry and a Christian hip hop artist.

The concert opened up with the mass choir from St. Paul United Methodist Church.  The choir performed a number of traditional hymns reminiscent of its excellent performance a year earlier.  Members said they enjoy coming out to Gospel Fest and performing for the crowd.

“It’s certainly a privilege to be invited and to share with the crowd what God means to us,” said Chip Grace of the St. Paul mass choir.  “It’s not often we get to perform out and share the Gospel with other people, so every opportunity we get we surely take it.”

Following St. Paul was the mime ministry of Divine Innocence, a high school student at R.J. Reynolds High School. She said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and I’m just happy for this opportunity to be able to stand in front of God’s people and show them my gift.”

The other acts were Pastor Todd Curry, Dr. George Pass & NEW, Nelson L. Roberts, Jeremiah Salter & Nu Elevation Worship and Kayo Bracey.

Bracey is a Christian hip hop artist who not only performed upbeat tracks that had many in the crowd dancing but also gave a his-tory of how he was delivered from a life of sin.  He also spoke about Alisia Dieudonne, one of the North Carolina A&T students shot and killed over the weekend, whom he knew and was a part of his latest music video.  He said when he heard the news, it broke his heart and the irony is she left Chicago to get away from violence just to unfortunately succumb to it.

“It’s so much negativity going on in the world, it’s nice to just do anything positive period,” Bracey continued.  “It’s too much hate going on now so lifting up God and being able to come to a positive event like this, I love it.  I feel like my music is relatable, because when I was younger in church, I loved God but the music didn’t hit me. So for the kids, they hear all of this music on the radio so when you can replicate that, but talk about God in it, it hits them harder because they can relate to it.”

There was a steady flow of people who came to check out the performers on stage.  Many people stayed for the entire event and loved the different acts. Kay Hawkins of Winston-Salem said she comes every year and always enjoys herself.

“It was wonderful and I’ve been coming since they first started.  I really liked the young rapper because I’m really interested in what our young people are doing and he had a good message.  This year all the choirs had a different sound, which was really nice.”

Paulette Williams of Winston-Salem added, “Everything went well. The praise and worship was awesome.”