MegaFest taking year off, may not come back to Atlanta

<p>Bishop T.D. Jakes is putting his popular religious gathering, MegaFest, on hold for next year and says the event may not return to Atlanta the next time it's held.</p><p>That means Atlanta will lose one of its biggest religious events and lucrative conventions, which brought 500,000 people to the city at its height.</p><p>The decision, announced Tuesday, was based on surveys of those who attended the four-day event, said Derrick Williams, a spokesman for Jakes' Dallas mega-church, the Potter's House. Attendees found travel and lodging costs burdensome. At least 70 percent of the MegaFest's visitors came from outside Atlanta, Williams said.</p><p>"When you're the mother of a couple of kids, it's not something that you can do on an annual basis," said Williams, who manages MegaFest. "We want to be sensitive to the needs of our delegates."</p><p>Potter's House officials said crowds had decreased. MegaFest drew at least 500,000 in 2004, its first year in Atlanta; 100,000 the following year; and another 100,000 this past summer, according to the church.</p><p>But the Georgia World Congress Center Authority said MegaFest only drew about 80,000 this year.</p><p>Williams said Jakes' decision had nothing to do with declining attendance figures.</p><p>"Absolutely not," Williams said. "It's definitely not losing its appeal."</p><p>MegaFest had an estimated economic impact of $94 million _ which includes estimates of money visitors spent on lodging, transportation and food, according to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. The event generated $3.9 million in sales tax revenue.</p><p>Lauren Jarrell, spokeswoman for the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the group has been talking to MegaFest officials about bringing the event back to the city in 2008.</p><p>"We still have them as tentative for '08, and that's what we are working on with them," Jarrell said.</p><p>The event, attended mainly by black parishioners, also brought in celebrities such as actor Will Smith, singer Aretha Franklin and former NFL player Deion Sanders.</p><p>But fans said MegaFest's appeal had faded.</p><p>Serena Hinnant, a homemaker from Tyrone, said attending MegaFest was like experiencing a spiritual sugar high. One felt a rush after hearing sermons but went home with the same problems they arrived with. Also, the peddling of books, tapes and products tainted the event, she said.</p><p>"Once you've done it, you kind of get the same things over and over again," Hinnant said.</p><p>Shayne Lee, a Tulane University sociologist who wrote "T.D. Jakes: America's New Preacher," an analysis of Jakes' ministry, said he is not surprised Jakes is putting MegaFest on hold, saying Jakes has always reworked his ministry.</p><p>"He's going to take a year off to retool himself and find some new way to reinvent himself," Lee said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc8f0)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/11/113765