Come April, Trinidad and Tobago will host a gospel festival of international standard. The TT Gospel Festival was launched at a press conference on Monday at Level 16, Nicholas Towers, Independence Square, Port of Spain.
The NGO Celian Group is responsible for organising the event, which has the support of both the Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon. It will be held from April 27-30 and grew out of the Gospel Music Awards of TT, which began in 2018.
Celian Group chairman Ian Haywood Jr said the event is the final pillar in a 2020 strategic framework in the creation of a festival that will attract the regional and international gospel community.
'This is phase four. We have been receiving a number of comments and support from regional territories on our social media pages, saying, 'I wish I could come to TT for this event in September, I wish I could come to TT for this event in June.'
'We have pivoted to take three of our big branded events and put them into one weekend and that is what we are calling the Gospel Festival of TT,' he said.
The group has been hosting one-off events, but decided to pool those events together and aid in the creation of a festival.
'TT has been the number-one award-winning country within the Caribbean region within the Caribbean awards. There were 54 categories, and we would have won about 18 of those categories,' he said.
He said TT is the hub for gospel music and this has led to people booking flights here to experience the different things taking place over the last couple of years. He said it will bring economic value to the country and aid in creating positive social change.
'Gospel music preaches or purports a particular philosophy. A philosophy of decency, a philosophy of being responsible, and even in that vein, we would have connected with the Ministry of Education to be good exemplars for the younger people, to be part of the national drive to be better and to be more,' Haywood Jr said.
The group chose April because, from its research, that is one of the months of lowest tourist arrivals in the country. (September is the other month.)
'We decided to take the responsibility to contribute to one of the low periods to lift it a bit so that the country can be at a better level...as it pertains to tourists coming to TT.
"We encourage the wider Caribbean to come to the event."
Haywood Jr said about 55 per cent of TT's society is faith-based and that is the market the festival hopes to attract.
'We have a number of people who are not necessarily church-going, but have a certain consciousness that we speak to, and those are the people we want to come back into our event.'
The festival starts with a business expo hosted by MusicTT - a governmental agency housed under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The conference will be geared toward helping artistes improve their product, marketing and branding as well
