[Gospel Fest website text] The Long Beach Gospel Fest is a FREE event!!!
Through the sharing of inspirational music, the Annual Long Beach Gospel Fest continues to draw thousands from the community and afar for a day of celebration and a unique citywide unifying experience that is unparalleled to community festivals. It is not just a day of great entertainment, delicious food, and activities for all, it’s quite an experience. Lives have changed due to the efforts of this festival. Each year, hundreds of disconnected people find hope in meeting congregations and organizations that lead them to a purpose in life.
Hundreds of community volunteers come together with congregations, business organizations, community resources, local vendors and political figures all fueled by the unifying effects of gospel music to reunite individuals with their community and what it has to offer.
Through this mission, not only has the Long Beach Gospel Fest become one of the counties largest community festivals of its kind but it has began to draw multitudes of people from neighboring cities and states to the beautiful Downtown Long Beach community.
Throughout the festival, attendees have the opportunity to meet the city officials who represent their interests in the local political offices, the businesses who truly care to give back, and the people who wait with open arms to embrace them.
This year's Annual Gospel Fest attendance is expected to be between 25,000-30,000 as the festival continues to draw in more people year after year.
Why Gospel Music?
Gospel Brings in the Good News!
Congregations are often the foundation of the community. They unify those who live there through outreach, the message of hope, and of course through music.
The Long Beach Gospel Fest brings gospel music to where the heart is- where we live, work, play, and worship. Gospel music does more than just sound sweet- it literally moves its listeners. Whether its raising of hands to the worshiping rhythms, tapping with quartets, or clapping with choirs, gospel music is one genre of music that has to be both seen and heard. Once narrowly defined as a personal religious preference, gospel music has leaped over traditional walls to become a profound force in American music and popular culture today. No longer bound by the walls of church, gospel music captures the creative and spiritual imaginations of increasing numbers of global audiences.
Gospel music over the centuries has ministered to the downtrodden and disenfranchised to give hope out of uncomfortable and challenging circumstances.
Making a joyful noise is what the music is all about and it invites the participation of all to come together to honor the past, look forward to the future, and through song and dance renew our faith.
