The Critic Notebook; The Damp Squib Of MOG’s “Back To The Basics” New Wine Concert

Photos by Chris Imagery

Over the years, gospel events has seen a rise in the process of planning and execution. Sunday the 30th of March 2025 saw the “Back to the basics” edition of MOG’S NEW WINE CONCERT at the First Love Church, Situated behind the Trinity Theological School, Accra.

The gospel event popularized as one of the best in Ghana, I believe has come a long way in achieving an organizational score of nine over ten however, the organizational mandate which comprises of activities preluding to the main event keeps falling.

Following the event keenly and gracing the Accra edition which hosted Kumasi’s finest Quame Gyedu, praise giant Obaapa Christy, Joe Mettle, Barry Neequaye and Pastor Isaiah, I captured some lapses that seem to threaten the future of the event and many other gospel events.

How do we measure the success of gospel event; is it by attendance, standard for production, the flow of the event or the lives the event touches? This question will draw multiple answers and requires a full piece to drive the conversation.

Below are my candid assertions of MOG’S NEW WINE CONCERT THEMED “BACK TO THE BASICS”

TIMING

As a community, we gradually failing to respect time in the sense that, the event scheduled to commence at 5pm started at 6pm. One will argue that the organizing body couldn’t have started the worship event without a seated guests. But the big question is, has this practice of lateness been picked up by patrons due to the constant repetition of late start on the part of organizers, encouraging patrons not to show up early.

Timing is key and if organizers can gradually practice early start of the event, I believe patrons of the event will align and notify the event for its early start.

ATTENDANCE

For an event organized yearly, this year’s turnout was not encouraging compared to previous editions. With the Kumasi’s edition seeing much numbers, event fanatics expected the Accra edition to record massive numbers considering Accra being the home grounds of the event. Recording a little bit over thousand three hundred patrons, with half of the number being teenagers below twenty years of age, the event for me is gradually losing its audience appeal. And yet again it could be argued that the heavy rains hindered most of the events patrons from getting to the venue, even though the rains came after 6pm.

Having said that, the recorded numbers could barely fill the auditorium leaving empty seats to enjoy the smoothing sound mixed by Pastor Kakraba one of Ghana’s prolific sound engineers.

The event, however witnessed the presence of some notable gospel ministers and industry personalities such as Mr. Dennis Anderson( Praise Tv/ Praise Achievement Awards), Timothy Bentum, Efe Grace, Roselyn Felli, Akesse Brempong, Pastor Nii Okai, Albert Acheampong (CEO of Footprint Tv) , Empress Gifty and many more.

WHY THE CHANGE OF THE AUDITORIUM/VENUE.?

Knowing, the Christian background of the convener of the New Wine Concert the change of venue came to me as a surprise. Changing the event’s destination from its usual play ground to another, raised a lot of eye brows in the gospel space.

Out of Curiosity I quizzed one of the organizers on the change of venue, she quickly answered stating that “there were delays in response or feedback from the facility managers concerning the booking of the usual venue (The Oil Dome, Royalhouse Chapel International) and these delays forced us (MOG and his team) to look elsewhere”.

Diving deep into the issue, my findings on the streets of social media highlighted an event held on Friday the 28th of March and on the Saturday 29th of March 2025 at the Oil Dome, Royalhouse Chapel International which could be the possible reason why the renowned gospel artist and member of the church/venue in question could not get the opportunity to use his usual home grounds for this year’s edition of the New Wine Concert.

Arguably, I could say emphatically that the change of venue added to the poor patronage of this year’s event. The capacity of the First Love Auditorium swallowed the audience without a glitch, leaving more seats to chance.

These are take way points I believe should be looked at in the future;

Firstly, changing venue should come with an understanding of the capacity of the new venue and if the event’s promotional strategy can meet up with the aim of filling the said auditorium to its full capacity.

Secondly, geographical location of the new venue should be the top most priority. This is to access if the event’s existing patrons/audience will be to travel to the new venue without having to complain.

USHERING

Turning out to be the most infamous department in event execution, Ushering has a great role in creating better audience experiences. The seating arrangement of event patrons is highly considered for event photography and video production yet we seem to be failing each day in this department. Most often the hired protocol and Ushers are either focused on receiving high-profile guest or are caught enjoying the event forgetting the purpose of their presence and MOG’S New Wine Concert can not be exempted from this unprofessional act of Ushering.

To commence with, I believe the Ushering department didn’t align with the core production team to achieve the goal of an experience. Entering the auditorium from the Vip reserved entrance, I counted not less than five hundred empty chairs and I wondered why.? This gingered me to take a spirit walk while the program was ongoing and I found another set of empty seats at the far end.

To my greatest surprise they were patrons seated at the top floor then again I wondered why.?

Why fill some part of the top floor and ignore the flanges of the ground floor leaving the seats empty? Planning on being upset with the whole arrangement I remember I was in the presence of God, and for this reason I approached another member on the production team and asked why did they put up such an arrangement, surprisingly he had no idea of the mishap in arrangement so he assured me of making some changes and this conversation caused the ushers to effect a last minute change by allowing patrons at the top floor take a seat at the ground floor.

FLOW OF EVENT

A killer of joy and spiritual momentum, the constant change of bandsmen constantly held the spirit and worship flow of the New Wine Concert to a ransom.

Dropping the momentum of Worshippers to zero, at every point in time when an artiste needs to mount the stage to minister was a pain in my soul and I am sure many others felt same.

Draining the worship experience, I believe this practice should be carefully looked at, to aid the flow of events because these breaks distorts ones mind set during a worship sessions of such high magnitude.

Moving forward it will be extremely nice to see the various artists aligning with a the event’s carpet band to minister, providing a smooth flow of the event that guarantees the satisfaction of patrons.

SUMMARY

Returning to the basics on which our foundation are built and aligning with the theme of this year’s New Wine Concert. I strongly recommend that maximum attention is given to this year’s lapses to enhance a glorious next edition.