Liverpool Gospel Music Festival comes to Stanley Park

Liverpool will host the first major UK gospel music festival this September.

The event, on September 9, will be held at Stanley Park and will include internationally renowned artists including The Kingdom Choir and CalledOut Music.

Liverpool Lighthouse is organising the festival which is supported by the Gospel Music Industry Alliance and funded by Arts Council England, Liverpool City Council and VistaPrint among others. It coincides with a drive to make September ‘Gospel Music Heritage Month’.

There are plans for the festival to become an annual date in the calendar and be expanded to include meet-the-artist events, panel discussions and activities for families and the community as well as a wider celebration of Black culture.

The line-up for the inaugural event also features the Love & Joy Gospel Choir, Sarah Teibo, Sense of Sound, Lighthouse Choir, Volney Morgan & New Ye, DavidB, Wavertree Gospel Choir and NaffymaR.

There will also be a singing masterclass with Karen Gibson, the award-winning director of the Kingdom Choir, which takes place at Liverpool Town Hall next Friday, September 8. Tickets cost £20 and everyone is welcome, from beginners to professional singers and choir directors. Tickets HERE.

And the Town Hall is also the venue for a panel discussion, also on the evening of September 8, featuring Anthonia Edwards, winner of the Voice UK 2022; Muyiwa Olarewaju, station director and head of music at Premier Gospel Radio; musician and broadcaster Roger Moore; co-chair of Gospel Music Industry Alliance, director of Affinity Xtra Radio and GL360 Media, Wizdom Layne, head of MOBO Unsung and deputy director of Sound Connection, and African theatre performer, actor and voice over artist Ayo Edwards.

Tickets are £10, with 50 percent discount for students, and are available HERE.

As part of the wider vision to spread the power and joy of gospel music alongside the positive impact of Black culture, the festival will be accompanied by a programme taking gospel music into schools in partnership with music education hub Resonate.

Festival director Anu Omideyi, who is also music director at Liverpool Lighthouse - the only Art Council National Portfolio Organisation to cover gospel music, says: “It’s been wonderful to see how gospel music has featured on a national scale recently, for example, during the Coronation ceremonies and celebrations and as highlighted through Lighthouse Choirs during the Eurovision programming in Eurovision Welcomes the World.

“But gospel music and musicians have significantly supported mainstream popular artists for decades and now we’re excited to build a mainstream platform that celebrates and platforms the genre itself.

“We welcome gospel music lovers from all over the world as well as those who want to get to know more.”

Among those supporting the festival are Liverpool Football Club players Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Luis Diaz who recently visited Liverpool Lighthouse to hear a rehearsal by the Lighthouse Choir and Love & Joy Gospel Choir.

Liverpool Gospel Music Festival takes place at Stanley Park on September 9. More HERE