Shoutfest returns for 15th year

Oct. 21—Community members gathered at Beverly D. Clyburn Generations Park on Saturday for the Shoutfest gospel festival.

This event, the largest of its kind in the CSRA, was hosted for the first time this year by the Umoja Village nonprofit corporation. "Homecoming" was the year's theme.

Visitors enjoyed gospel music performed by artists like Rudy Currence and The Legendary Singing Stars.

The event has been hosted by local radio station WAAW Shout 94.7 FM for the past 14 years, until it was sold to a new company in mid-2023. Umoja Village Co-founder Donna Wesby, who was also the radio station's general manager, decided that she wanted to keep Shoutfest going even after the station transitioned to sports programming.

"We could not let this event die," said Wesby.

Despite the radio station being sold in the middle of the year, the community "stepped up," helping to provide the $25,000 necessary to make the event possible.

That amount of money was not previously in Umoja Village's annual budget, but Wesby said that "God gave us the tools we needed to keep it going."

For Wesby, gospel music is a way to inspire and encourage. "When people are going through challenges, it lifts you up," she said. "The word of God says, 'if I be lifted up on the earth, I'll draw all men unto me,' and this event is all about doing just that. Somebody here will hear a song or receive a prayer that will give them the courage to keep going another day."