The 2024 Ecumenical Evangelical Congress began with a sing-along at Kennedy Square in Essen. “We are coming with 5,000 singers from 24 countries,” exclaimed Rev. Matthias Kleiböhmer, pastor of the Evangelical Churches, at the welcoming ceremony on Friday afternoon. The event began with the gospel ensemble “Rejoice” from Langenberg. Despite occasional heavy rain, many listeners sang and applauded.
Later, a choir of about 100 young people from Essen was scheduled to perform, who wanted to perform, among other things, the Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie hit “We Are the World.”
200 choir singers will take part in the festival at various locations in the Ruhr area cities until Sunday. 90 events and 130 hours of stage programming are planned. The motto is “Welcome to Paradise”. From Friday evening to Sunday, more than 50,000 visitors are expected to attend the many concerts where they will sing along, swing along and simply listen.
The organizers are the Evangelical Creative Church Foundation in Witten, which regularly organizes large-scale choir events and other church music performances and follows the gospel scene across the country. The biennial festival was also the first to receive support from the Catholic Church.
