The Experience, hosted by House On The Rock Church has held every second Friday of the month of December since its inception in 2006 at the Tafawa Balewa Square Lagos, Nigeria; except 2007 where the concert was moved to 30th November, featuring gospel artists from home and abroad including America’s Kirk Franklin & Israel Houghton, and iconic South African worship leader, Lionel Peterson, to mention but a few.
The very first Experience which recorded an attendance of a little over 70,000 people, has now grown to be recognized as the largest and most anticipated gospel concert in the world.
It has gone from hosting 70,000 people to about 700,000 people physically at the Tafawa Balewa Square and environs, with viewers joining from different parts of the country and the world at large to be part of concert.
In December 2019, the 14th edition tagged Let Us Worship, saw a huge number of worshippers in attendance, while others watched on cable beamed in over 50 countries in Africa with more people streaming on the various platforms online, taking over the Twitter trends table from top to bottom.
Participants left the event in high spirits, anticipating the 2020 edition and all the good things the New Year will bring.
It is general knowledge that the organizers of The Experience always outdo themselves each year, so, while people were excited about the just concluded event, they already couldn’t wait to see the next wonder the organizers will come up with, one of which is always the artists they bring.
2020 came and in February, Nigeria saw its first COVID-19 case. The wide spread of the virus across the world led countries including Nigeria to go into total lockdown for months.
Movements were restricted to only essential workers to help flatten the curve and reduce the spread of the virus.
While everything stopped and it didn’t look like Nigeria was going to be declared covid free with the way cases kept increasing, one question on the lips of many was how The Experience was going to happen, and if it was going to hold at all.
Something happened though, church services, lectures, meetings, events, interviews and even weddings started holding virtually.
There was a huge shift as the world suddenly went digital.
New video conferencing platforms sprang up and a huge competition amongst these platforms was birthed. While some companies struggled for a while, it wasn’t long before people realized that most of the activities they held physically could be done virtually.
Even when the lockdown was eased in Nigeria, organizations had already seen how most of their activities could be done virtually and many didn’t see the need to switch.
On the 23rd of November, the organisers of the experience tweeted: “Yes we had the last 14 editions together mainly in one place, yet now we’re not apart, we’re still in this together as we go global with the #TE15G.
There are no barriers and nothing can stop us, our God deserves our praise all the way, and He will have it.”
This was good news! Avid fans of The Experience couldn’t contain their excitement even though many still weren’t sure what format the convert was going to take.
Will they invite guest artists from Nigeria alone, and hold the event at The Rock Cathedral? Will the organizers have guests book seats and only have a specific number of seats available due to social distancing?
While people were able to stream the experience in previous events, attendees at the Tafawa Balewa Square could see the guest artists physically. This time however, things are different. Guest artists will plug in from wherever they are in the world.
From across Africa to Asia, Australia, North America and South America, guest artists one after the other, are currently performing from wherever they are and worshippers can still bask in the glory of God, even form the safety of their homes.
Perhaps The Experience Lagos is not just going to be the largest gospel concert in the world physically; one hour in, it promises to be the largest virtual concert the world has ever witnessed.
