Event builds on its immediate success

July 7, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

YOUNGSTOWN

With only one year under its belt, the 2DE Gospel Fest already has a great track record.

In its inaugural outing last summer, about 2,000 people came downtown on a rainy day to see headliner Tye Tribbett.

This year’s event, featuring gospel great Fred Hammond, is expected do even better.

While Tribbett is at the top of his game, his audience tends to skew younger, while Hammond, with his 30-year career, has a fan base that spans all generations.

The festival also includes a series of 30-minute performances by Warren Citywide Youth Choir, Youngstown Citywide Youth Choir, Six Singing Shepherds, and the Emancipation Choir. Hammond will go on around 8 p.m.

Excited to see the gospel heavy-hitter are fest organizers Rev. Todd Johnson of Warren (director of Warren Citywide Youth Choir and pastor of Second Baptist Church of Warren) and Chris Gunther of Youngstown. Both are life-long fans.

“We’re trying to touch a cross-section of the community, especially the younger ones,” said Rev. Johnson.

Hammond is to the R&B generation what Tribbett is to the hip-hop crowd, noted Rev. Johnson.

The greater goal of the Gospel Fest is to bring together the area’s churches and people, and in that, it succeeds, said Gunther, an ordained minister and YSU student who has a gospel program on the school’s Rookery Radio.

“Everyone puts down their titles for one day and gets to God,” said Gunther.