JOY FEST
3-10:10 p.m. Saturday. Six Flags Over Georgia — Southern Star Amphitheater, 275 Riverside Parkway S.W., Austell. Tickets in advance $49.99-$104.99. Tickets purchased online must pay service fees. For more information, and to buy tickets, visit www.joyfest.org/, or call 1-800-965-9324.
*Season Pass Concert Only tickets may be purchased by those who hold a valid 2013 Six Flags Over Georgia Season Pass, or another form of valid park admission $19.99. Park admission is required to attend the festival.
Acclaimed gospel singer Kirk Franklin said he is excited to visit Atlanta again.
He will headline Joy Fest, one of the country’s largest gospel tours, at Six Flags Over Georgia on Saturday.
Franklin visits Atlanta two to three times a year for musical performances and to film the BET gospel talent show, “Sunday Best,” and said he considers Atlanta his second home.
“I love Atlanta, the restaurants, people, the spirit of the people. It is a very talented city, from the production studios to the singers,” he said.
Franklin will perform with other gospel artists Bone Hampton, Marvin Sapp and Isaac Carree on Saturday night, and has no idea what will happen at the show, other than, “it will be great.” Every show is spontaneous, Franklin said, and although he still gets nervous before a performance, once he gets going, it comes naturally.
“I love doing what I do. Folks who have been following me for 20 years will get what I always try to give them,” he said.
Franklin is known for fusing traditional gospel music with hip-hop, pop and R&B, and he has recently produced a song with Atlanta-based rapper Lecrae, an old friend.
Franklin’s most recent album, “Hello Fear,” was released in March 2011, and he has stayed busy touring, writing, singing and hosting “Sunday Best.” Franklin also published a book, “The Blueprint,” in 2010.
The Christian community, Franklin said, is “doing a great job” of expanding into new and different genres of music, like hip-hop.
Franklin is known for performing with passion, and likes to spontaneously “jump offstage into the audience, so I can interact with the people, making them feel a part of the concert … it’s like a big tent revival,” he said.
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