LAST week's Freedom Music Festival drew a wide cross-section of the community to Victoria Park.

Billed as a non-denominational concert, Freedom Music Festivals have been in existence abroad since the 1960s, and Sunday's music fell somewhere in the middle of traditional inspirational tunes and the latest phrase of "praise and worship" tunes.

The local concert was the brainchild of Cathy West of Freedom Music, who saw the concert as a baptism by fire, but as a means of promoting modern worship in Bermuda.

"I'm putting my feelers out and see what God wants us to do. This weekend was important to introduce this sort of worship to people," she explained.

While her company is only months old, there is a wide selection of music available for lovers of Christian rock or modern inspirational music. Although she did not engage in a media blitz, Cathy was delighted with the turnout and admitted she had only handed out a few fliers in the days leading up to the show.

She added: "The rest was by word of mouth. There is a real hunger here on the island for something new. The music is put out by Christian groups, and musicians in the church are putting out albums. The music reaches the kids that God isn't boring, He's exciting!"

There were dozens of children in attendance who danced and enjoyed themselves while the adults sang from a lyric sheet handed out before the concert. While the music wasn't quite what traditional inspirational music lovers were used to, the lyrical content was far from watered down.

Not all of the music is positive but those familiar with praise/worship music agree the music and lyrics mediate ideas of freedom and sovereignty of the individual.

With music genres constantly evolving, it was no surprise to see Christian folk/rock follow the same path as gospel reggae in the local religious community. Those present were given CDs containing many of the songs performed by the "house band" comprised of locals and Canadians; the latter flew in for a religious conference and to give a gratis concert.

Cathy was cautiously optimistic about the Freedom Music Festival becoming an annual event locally. The concert was about two hours long, which went by fairly quickly with only one pause that seemed a little, but the band more than redeemed themselves as the audience got into the "holy ghost feel" and interacted quite well with the band.

While the speakers weren't as huge as one would have expected from a show of this calibre, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't say the audio engineer did a fine job in getting the best sound out of the speakers sans distortion.

For those who missed the concert or want to add tunes they heard from the day's performance could reach Cathy at 238-4268, or e-mail her at freedom_musichotmail.com