All rise for Ennis gospel festival

ENNIS is hosting the first ever national gospel choir festival next week with representatives from all over the country and England set to swing and sing in the town.
The Really Truly Joyful Gospel Choir in Ennis are hosting the festival.
“We’re delighted to host this brand new festival. Ennis is a perfect town for such an event,” said Mike Griffin of the choir.
The Irish Gospel Music Festival, Gospel Rising is being organised and run by a group belonging to several different choirs from all over Ireland who saw a need for an event which could bring together lovers of gospel music from all over the country to learn from each other and from networks and friendships.
The festival is built around a series of workshops encompassing gospel music style, repertoire, choreography, soloist technique and technical aspects of sound and band work. The event will culminate in a gig in Glór on the Saturday night showcasing Ireland’s many gospel music styles. There will be six choirs on stage including members of the London Community Gospel Choir and US gospel music legend, Andrae Crouch.
For anyone interested in learning and experiencing this style of music first hand, Gospel Rising are running workshops throughout the weekend, finishing with Jack L (who is currently touring with a gospel choir) running his own workshop on Sunday afternoon.
“We decided to hold a festival because, for the last couple of years, we have always been saying what a pity it was that our choirs did not have more to do with each other, so we decided that we should try to organise an event where the choirs could come together and get to know each other on a social level,” Mike added.
“From this, we decided that the best way of doing it was through the music that we all love and so we decided to run a weekend of workshops which would culminate in a gig where the choirs get to show off what we do, to each other.”
He added that when they started organising the event, they were amazed to find our how many gospel choirs there are in Ireland.
“They started popping up all over the place. I’m sure we’re still missing choirs but we really are trying to get hold of as many as possible as we want this festival to become an annual event that Gospel music lovers from all over the country look forward to as a weekend where they can learn something, get into the music and have a bit of fun,” he said.
The festival kicks off on Friday, May 7, with a Gospel Jam. This will be a fun and interactive workshop with members of the great London Community Gospel Choir. The LCGC will also be taking some of the workshops on Saturday along with other facilitators including Lourdes O Donoghue, Niall Varley and Eimear Crehan.
“Workshops cover a wide range of aspects of gospel music, including choral, soloist, band, movement and technical workshops so we hope that everyone will find something that they are really excited about in our line up.”
One of the godfathers of gospel music, Andrae Crouch, is also dropping in to the festival.  His choir, the Andrae Crouch Choir, sang with Michael Jackson in Man in the Mirror. He will be taking part in two of the Saturday workshops as well as performing at the Saturday night festival gig.
“Saturday night’s concert will be a great night of gospel choirs showing off their skills. The set lists have been sent in and we have some really diverse groups singing, which is just as it should be considering the huge variety and diversity that is to be found on the Irish gospel music scene. Following the gig we are having a club night in Glor, which we think is a first,” Mike added.