Feeling part of a festival

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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One of the things that makes Goombay special is the audience participation. The festival becomes you, you become the festival. Musicians will move through the crowd, interact. They’ll hand the microphone over.

Anyone who gets the notion can just break out into a funky dance, and nobody cares. The party goes on around them. It’s wonderful. And you never know what you’re going to get. The woman in green, who took the microphone after several people pointed to her, turned out to be the lead singer of the Gospel Supremes, a Shelby-based group. And let me tell you, she could sing. She never once left her camp chair, but she belted out a gospel tune with incredible lung power. She wowed the crowd. Let’s have the Gospel Supremes come visit next year, please.