Augusta Gospel Show Goes Awry

AUGUSTA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — A concert promoter is denying responsibility in the wake of a gospel concert that failed to live up to its advertising.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, the June 27th concert at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta was advertised with a lineup that included James Fortune and Vickie Winans, but ended up with only local performers, leaving many in attendance upset.

However, promoter Sharif King of Dower Live claims that the Fortune & Friends concert was canceled on June 26 over concerns about the size of the church. King maintains that it was the church's responsibility to notify the public about the change in lineup.

“This was not the James Fortune and Friends concert,” King told the Chronicle. “This was a Tabernacle Baptist Church event.”

However, the church maintains that they were just leasing the venue to Dower Live, with spokeswoman Natasha Carter telling the Chronicle: “We didn’t even do any of the promoting for the event. We had no interaction with any of the artists.”

The concert was moved to the church after the initial venue, the William B. Bell memorial auditorium fell through. However the Church placed a limit on how many people could attend, at which point King claims he notified Winans and Fortune that the event was canceled. Fortune did post a tweet on the day of the show announcing that his performance had been postponed, but Winans appears not to have been notified and flew in for the show.

King arranged for Winans to be picked up at the airport and claims he tried to work out a deal for her to perform, but said he lost his phone before the arrangement could be finalized. As well, King was at the show and helped count the money from the ticket sales but maintains that he was only there to assist, and not as a promoter for Dower Live.

This was not the case, church spokeswoman Natasha Carter maintains, telling the Chronicle that “We have contracts showing Dower Live leased the venue. The church was just the victim of this incident. We don’t want this experience to jade us in any way.” – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers