By Suelika N. Buchanan
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| Lieutenant Stitchie giving an enegertic perfomance Friday Night at Jubilee 10 |
(Basseterre; St. Kitts): The Jubilee Gospel Festival started on Friday, July 27 with a bang including Fireworks and list of top gospel artistes including Lieutenant Stitchie.
On Saturday evening, Papa San, of Jamaica, delivered his music in a reggae/dancehall style.
The audience that was made up mostly of Christians and young people made their way to the front when Papa San took the stage.
The people were screaming and singing along at the top of their voices to the artists popular tunes.
It was like a music festival atmosphere as the grounds of the Newtown Sports Stadium was carefully set out, adorned with Food Stands, and advertisements from the various businesses that sponsored the event.
“We want this event to be the premiere Gospel event in the Federation,” said organizer of the event Nigel Browne.
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| Nigel Browne |
Browne is the President and Founder of the Youth Impact Ministries Network, who is responsible for the Jubilee Festival.
He said that this is the tenth year and is pleased with the celebrations so far.
Along with the massive fireworks commemorating the opening of Jubilee Fest on Friday, Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports, Lloyd Lazar officially opened the event.
Browne said that he is very pleased that the support from the ministry of Tourism who now recognizes Jubilee as a significant Tourism product that can generate revenue into the economy as well as exposing the island to these international artists and speakers.
However, Browne admitted to SKNVibes that he was somewhat disappointed with the turnout on Saturday night and hope that in the future more churches would show their support to the event.
“This is a family affair, it is also something positive for the youth, people have been crying out about the youth,” he said. “And we feel that Jubilee is one of the ways we can reach the youths.”
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| Papa San delivering apowerful performance |
Browne said that organizing a festival of this magnitude with guest artists from overseas takes a lot of hard work.
“People take it for granted, sometimes we don’t always get the support we need but we’re thankful to all the business including Cable & Wireless for supporting this event,” he said.
“However, all the hard work is certainly worth it, and we will continue with the concert. We may take sometime off to look at our resources and the concert and how we can better organize things and this we hope will improve the event and turnout.”
On Sunday, July 29, a conference and concert was held featuring speaker Prophetess Evelyn Turnbull and singer Melissa Browne of Trinidad.
Jubilee Fest will continue with a Kids Jubilee from today, Monday 30th until Thursday, August, 2. Kids Jubilee will feature mini concerts, bouncing castle and more along with an Anniversary Exhibition and Food Fair. ~~Adz:Right~~
Nevis will also have their Jubilee experience with the Prodigal Son on Friday 3, DJ Nicholas on Saturday 4 and a Conference and Concert featuring Ayanah Gordon on Sunday, August, 5.
The events will be held at the St. Thomas’ School Complex.
The theme for the event is “Expanding the vision. Embracing the mission”.
