When Pearlie G. Sandidge, Derrick Thompson and the Scott Zion’s Men’s Chorus gather at Sweet Briar College’s Memorial Chapel, it’s time to rejoice. It’s time for Gospel Fest.

The annual event — which features some of the area’s best gospel choirs and singers — will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24 in Memorial Chapel. Admission is free and open to the public. A snow date is set for March 2.

This year’s program also will include Youth for Truth, New Jerusalem’s Men’s Chorus, Spirit, Rita Kidd, God’s Disciples, Central Virginia Community Choral Ensemble, the Bolling Hill Baptist Church Mass Choir and others.

Many performers come back each year for the event when they can, as do audience members. The concert is usually well attended, and it brings together members of the Sweet Briar and neighboring communities.

“It’s a great night of fellowship,” said bass singer Thompson, a Lynchburg College senior and director of St. Mark Baptist Mass Choir, who has participated the past several years. Even though he’ll be a graduate student at Morgan State University in Baltimore at this time next year, he hopes to return for the 2009 festival.

He says the level of talent is always good and he likes that the groups and singers tend to keep the music traditional. “The older, traditional gospel is what I find more inspiring.”

That doesn’t mean he and others won’t mix in a few contemporary songs. But whatever the lineup, he says, at Sweet Briar’s Gospel Fest, the performers are people you “know will bring inspiration to the room.”

For more information, contact the SBC chaplain’s office at richeson@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6103.

— By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer