Edinburgh, Scotland
METRO BIG BAND
August 15 - 24, 2024
This was Metro Big Band’s third time to play at The Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival. Over 500,000 people come from all over the world to the festival, which means there’s no shortage of people to share the Gospel with. We shared music and testimony with over 1,300 people.
We played at Carrubbers Christian Center every night as part of the festival. The church is right in the middle of the Royal Mile, so it’s a heavily trafficked area. From the street, you have a direct line of view of the stage with all of the colorful lights on display, which is always a draw for people. Several of our team members passed out flyers and encouraged people to come in.
We did 3 sets of music each night with breaks in between, which allowed us to come out and talk to people in the audience. Everyone in the group enjoyed meeting people and getting to know them. We heard several stories from people, including
Someone searching for hope in their life
Someone looking for direction after separating from their spouse
Someone wanting to come back to God
Several seeking a church home
You just never know what people are going through. There were some people that came multiple evenings - and one person even came to every concert!
When we weren’t playing at the festival, we played in schools and prisons during the daytime. We couldn’t take pictures/video in any of those places, but there were some exciting times! The kids at the schools enjoyed the instrument demonstrations, and we got some really cute artwork from a couple of them.
It’s always great playing at prisons and bringing some joy to their very hopeless world. We received this message from one of the prisons -
“As you could tell by the singing AND dancing the women really, really enjoyed the afternoon – you brought love and joy with you and that is beyond price. Blessings all.“
We always enjoy getting to partner with Origin Ministries, our mission partner in Scotland and South Africa. Colin and Norma do an excellent job planning the projects, and we enjoy getting to support their ministry as well.
Here’s a video of our final concert -
Here’s what a few of our participants had to say about this project… we’d love for you to join us too!
I feel more confident and useful regarding GMP projects and sharing the Word through music.
He has taught me during this project to simply be available to Him and he will work out the details of where He wants me to go and do.
God has reminded me that there are so many people out there that need to hear the Good News!