Jonathan Rubain will host the inaugural Hallelujah Arts Festival in November.
The three-day gospel and jazz music festival is being held in Cape Town and boasts a stellar line-up of artists.
Rubain recently celebrated shooting the 100th episode of his popular show, “Koortjies Met Jonathan”, which airs on kykNET on Sundays at 6pm.
He will be hosting a weekend of gospel, jazz, spiritual dance, comedy, praise and worship in celebration of Mzansi’s unique culture.
The 38-year-old dad of three told IOL Entertainment that the festival aims to host a variety of shows packed into one weekend.
“It has always been a dream to host a gospel festival.
“It's not normal to have different art forms at one gospel event so my idea is to start off this kind of the norm for art to be expressed at gospel events,
“I want to grow the festival to a point where we have painting and hip hop and other forms of art.
“People are going to be part of a first of many to come and something that will change the landscape of gospel in South Africa forever.”
Rubain said his he is already foreseeing future moves with the festival.
“This will be the inaugural festival and I hope to take it to Pretoria next year. Our country needs more gospel festivals.
“There are all kinds of festivals happening around the country but hardly gospel festivals. I aim to reach the young and the old at this festival,” he said.
The festival will run over three days from November 25 to 27, starting with a night of spiritual dancing which will be directed by Lauren George of Prophetic Dance Ministries.
The Saturday afternoon will be devoted to praise and worship by Durban-based and multi-award-winning gospel artist Dumi Mkokstad.
Saturday evening sees the multi-talented Justin-Lee Schultz take to the stage with his band, who come all the way from the USA. Audiences will see Kyle Shepherd on keys, Don Vino on saxophone, Cameron Ward on guitars, Jonathan Rubain on bass and Keith De Bruyn on drums.
Sunday afternoon is special as comedian Marc Lottering does his first “Christian comedy” set.
Lottering said: “This is going to be special for me because I grew up in church with my parents being the Pastors of the church.”
Sunday evening will see the end of the festival with many of the country's favourite Pinkster artists including Rubain, Pastor Roland Miggels, Kurt Coetzee, David Jantjies and more.
The festival will be at the Good Hope Christian Centre in Ottery, Cape Town.
Tickets are available now at Computicket at R150 per show. A weekend pass costs R600