Scott Troublefield and New Vision.
Far out behind the crowded audience at Goffe Street Park, beyond still the stragglers who spread out among the opposing baseball diamond’s outfield, tucked just inside the entryway of the third-base dugout, a woman with gray hair and blue Nikes called out: “Amen!”
The Sunday sun had set, but the sound of gospel from the stage still echoed as far as Crescent Street. The woman, silhouetted by the park floodlights, said she was taking her church from all the way back there.
Sunday afternoon's crowd at Goffe Street Park.
That was in the final hour of GospelFest, a free music festival that lasted from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Thousands of people came out to listen to live music, patronize local vendors, and fill up on grub from the grill.
The celebration, which returned after a two-year hiatus, was the 25th anniversary of the event. (Read a story about the 2018 festival here, the 2010 festival here, or the 2007 festival here.)
Gospel Fest 2022 flyer.
Pastor Donald Morris of Life Kingdom Outreach Ministry and executive director of Christian Community Commission originated the event back in 1998 to “celebrate the historical tradition of gospel music, to provide a spiritual and social alliance other churches in the city and community at large while using the celebration as a vehicle to address such issues as education, health care, youth development and family betterment programs.” Other ministries present included Wayfaring Ministries, Upon This Rock Ministries, and Life Changing Outreach Ministries. This year, FaithActs for Education — Connecticut’s only Black-led, community-founded, faith-based education advocacy nonprofit — partnered with the Christian Community Commission to organize the event.
In the past the festival has attracted gospel heavyweights like Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams. This year, the occasion brought out international gospel musicians Byron Cage and James Fortune. Thirty acts from Connecticut and New York joined them.
People claimed spaces throughout Goffe Street Park on lawn chairs, donning sun hats and sunglasses, fanning themselves. In the background, giggles and screeches erupted from the splash pad. On the blacktop, a dozen or so vendors offered jewelry, apparel, and desserts.
Lashaunda Cruz, owner of jewelry and accessory Elibaund, with her sister Michelle.
Scott Huckaby, selling men's neckties, through his business Something Creative Off The Top.
Each of the ministries selling their own selection of grilled food.
Most acts centered around musical performance. One group expressed their worship in another form: dance. The Tia Russell Dance Studio, a “privately owned dance education program primarily servicing the Greater New Haven Area,” showcased a handful of pieces from students and instructors.
Tia Russell Dance Studio ballerinas.
The first of the dance groups from the Woodbridge-based studio was a small group of ballerinas. The music began with the sound of a sermon, as the dancers in long white skirts floated onto the stage.
It seemed clear that the dancers at the Tia Russell studio focus heavily on strength and extensions. The dancers in the ballet piece raised their developés and arabesques to impressive heights. The style in Sunday’s piece took on a more contemporary style of ballet, approachable and emotive.
Then there were tappers, a much younger group with a very different attitude. As the elementary-to-middle-schoolers shuffled their shoes about the stage, they served sassy faces and funky moves.
Last was a lyrical solo from Valamae Jenkins, who is a teacher at the studio and choreographed her own piece. The emotional performance brought audience members to their feet at its height, as Jenkins found new heights with each leap across the stage.
Valamae Jenkins.
Young Harmonistorm danced along to Sunday's tunes.
A standout musical group was the Heavenly Stars, a group comprised of a set of twins and their sister, their brother, three of their nephews, and one of their friends. Four women took the mics, riffing in four part harmonies and preaching out to the audience, which called back in a chorus.
The Heavenly Stars: Faye, Shirley, Kaye, and Sharon.
Sisters Sharon and Kaye of the Heavenly Stars.
The audience was so into the Heavenly Stars performance that the performers hardly wanted to leave the stage. After their microphones were turned off, one of the sisters’ nieces, who is not in the band, took to the stage to guide her family members off.
“I don’t know why they’d do that,” said a woman sitting in a lawn chair that came with its own shade. “They’ve been the best all weekend, and I grew up in the church, so I know what real religion is.”
James Fortune.
Sunday’s headliner, and the final performer of the weekend, was James Fortune, who has been called “urban gospel hip-hop soul … complete with Fortune’s spoken, sung, and shouted encouragement.” He lifted the spirits of the audience through the dance‑y gospel song “I’ve Got Favor,” by New Direction. Fortune was joined by a cohort of talented singers, who colored in the empty air with ad-libs and riffs.
Fortune also brought the audience to a more reflective and gracious mood, as in his choral song “I Am,” which repeats “You are my strength when I am weak” in soothing harmonies.
The crowds lasted past 9 p.m. at the park, lingering in the wake of the weekend of worship.
"The Sunday sun had set, but the sound of gospel from the stage still echoed as far as Crescent Street."
Believe me, it echoed a lot further than that!
The topography of Beaver Hills forms a natural amphitheatre of which the Goffe Street park constitutes the stage area. Sound from that source is clearly audible throughout the entire neighborhood. It echoes off the sides of the houses that face east, towards the park, and then bounces back from the sides of the houses that face west, so that as you walk along the north-south-oriented roads, you get amplified sound in stereo from both your left and your right. Sitting in your own backyard (which slopes downwards towards the park) you might as well be in the audience in the park half a mile downhill.
I've often wondered how our many Haredi Jewish neighbors feel when their Sabbath quiet is overwhelmed by the hours and hours of shouts and singing of "Jeeeeeeeeeeeee-sus! Hallelujah" from just downhill. Just another example of the neighborhood's (and the city's) diversity, and as far as I know there have never been any actual objections. I appreciate the Gospel Fest but I am also very glad it's just once a year, and that for the rest of the year (mostly) the events at the Goffe Street park do not involve highly amplified speech and music, since the entire neighborhood is inevitably a captive audience for whatever is going on at the park.