Celian Group to host Gospel Festival

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 as creating brands that are globally exportable.

The main events will be the Music Business Conference; Exalt: The Worship Experience 2023, iRep Christ Concert 2023 and closes with the Gospel Music Awards of TT 2023.

American gospel singer Kierra Sheard-Kelly will headline Exalt: The All White Worship Experience.

He said having an international act on cast will open markets for local acts to collaborate.

At iRep, there will be artistes from The Bahamas, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Grenada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados performing. The group is currently in negotiations with artistes and will release the full cast of performers in successive media conferences.

“The concept is ministry; the concept is highlighting to the wider market the quality that exists in TT,” Haywood Jr said.

Gadsby-Dolly said she remembers the start of the project and it was a bold step in seeking to promote the local gospel industry.

She said she is pleased to see it come to reality through the Celian Group’s hard work.

“It is a wonderful step in the right direction and the Ministry of Education is pleased to be a partner and to support this initiative.”

The minister said TT wants to contribute to the holistic development of its youth.

“The music they listen to has a big role to play in how they act and the things they do. Also the guidance they seek, can be achieved through the input of our gospel music industry personnel,” she said.

She said the ministry is happy to have gospel music artistes on board through its youth mentorship programme in collaboration with the Celian Group.

Many of the artistes spoke to students participating in Celian Group's Vacation Revision Programme held last year.

“That was very valuable, because they could have heard some of the stories, back stories and experiences and gained motivation, guidance and inspiration.”

Gadsby-Dolly said the ministry looked at the gospel festival as a time for some of the gospel artistes to visit schools and encourage some of the young people.

Gopee-Scoon said MusicTT had worked with Celian Group in hosting the Gospel Music Awards since 2019.

She said gospel music creates a unique experience, mesmerising audiences with melodious sounds and potent messaging which is important to people’s well-being.

It is the second largest subset of the local music industry, she said.

“Gospel music is considered one of the fastest-growing music segments internationally, with reported value of over US$500 million annually.”

Gopee-Scoon said these initiatives provide opportunity for networking and marketing and had created international and regional exposure for local gospel artistes.

The festival will aid in TT’s diversification creating employment, increased flights, bookings and an overall economic contribution, she said, and the festival will also expand TT’s event tourism.

The Government will be the main sponsor of the Gospel Music Awards, contributing $100,000, Gopee-Scoon said.