Post and photos by Daniel Harris
It was all love in the nation’s capital as the Washington
Convention Center played host to the first annual DC Love Festival this past Saturday evening.
This inaugural celebration brought together DC area vendors, photographers and of course artists and Djs with the hopes of highlighting
the best of Washington’s arts community. For many of the area’s up and coming
artists, DC Love Fest proved to be the best way to showcase their talents.
“I love performing for my people!” says Del Travar, an up and coming R&B artists from Richmond, VA. “To
be on the ticket with the likes of Raheem Devaughn and Marsha Ambrosius is a
blessing” the singer/songwriter continued.
The energy was electric as DC Love Fest got underway with DJ Phaze setting the tone for the
evening’s performances. For Washington
native John Michael, performing in
front of family members and people he grew up with proved to be a great
experience.
Michael, who’s single “Sophisticated
Lady” hit number 2 on the Billboard’s “Bubbling Under R&B/Hip Hop”
chart this past September, says, “It feels good to be here…to be here,
performing on the big stage, it feels great.” The Northeast DC born R&B
artist goes on to say “I feel like I’m representing for people that are still
making good music and there’s a lot of people here at DC Love Festival that are
still doing real music.”
There was an amazing show of support by those in attendance
for local R&B artists like Kyonte and
Lysette Titi, proving that good
music still matters on every level of the business. The ballroom floor of the
Washington Convention Center literally moved as Black Alley gave the crowd an exciting and eclectic blend of
R&B, funk, rock and soul.
As the evening continued, the always soulful, Marsha Ambrosius took the stage and
delivered an incredible performance. With so many of today’s R&B artists
focused on charts and numbers, Marsha took her attentive audience back to an
era when singer/songwriters drew from their own experiences to create beautiful
pieces of work. She even exclaims at one point, “I live these songs!”
As the night came to a close and the energy still at a high
level, it was hard to see how anyone could take this crowd any higher. Then, DC’s
own, Raheem Devaughn took the stage.
With hits under his belt like “You”, “Bulletproof” and
“I Don’t Care”, Devaughn has enjoyed
national and international acclaim. The love shown to Devaughn by his hometown
audience during his performance really shows that there is truly no place like
home.
DC Love Fest showcased just a fraction of the great local
talent in Washington, DC’s backyard. This festival did a great job of
demonstrating the importance of supporting local, up and coming talent.
Special thanks to Tone Walters for always supporting Gypsy Soul and providing us access.
3 comments:
Thanks for the write-up Daniel! You're an AMAZING writer. Wish I was there!
Nice write-up and Recap
JM
Go Daniel! Well-written. I don't care for Marsha's singing, but this article made me sad I missed everyone else!
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