LAURINBURG — Hundreds of people filled the Art Garden in downtown Laurinburg on Sunday as dozens of performers sang as part of the Singing Christmas Tree.
The event is the second event for the holiday season from ‘Tis the Season and had around 95 performers from local churches, community members, St. Andrews University and The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Jose Rivera, professor at UNCP and choir director at Laurinburg Presbyterian Church, helped coordinate the event and was happy with not just the performance but the crowd as well.
“It was incredible, exactly like we hoped it would be,” Rivera said. “There was such a great crowd and it was a truly magical event … last year we had a good crowd but this year it was huge.”
The group of performers have practiced every two weeks since September for the event and despite rain threatening to move the event inside for the second year, the weather turned around for the performance.
“When I woke up yesterday it was pouring, so we were all thinking we’d have to move to a secondary location,” Rivera said. “But then the clouds dispersed for us and we had the crowds there when it was time to perform.”
Rivera added that there isn’t anything like the Singing Christmas Tree in the area and, this year, not only did more people come to the event but more also came out to perform.
“We kept growing from last year and at our first rehearsal we had people from outside the area come wanting to perform,” Rivera said. “The idea is to bring Christmas to the area and what’s Christmas without singing? So we were wanting to bring the community together and celebrate with song.”
One thing Rivera was thankful for was the ‘Tis the Season group because of the organization’s success kicking off the holiday season last year and coming out again for this holiday season.
“There’s a lot of people involved to make this happen,” Rivera said. “And it’s because of that infrastructure that we were able to have such a successful event and we’re hoping to continue this because it’s starting to become part of a tradition.”
The next holiday event will be the Laurinburg Christmas parade Saturday at 3 p.m. in downtown Laurinburg.
Reach Katelin Gandee at 910-506-3171 or at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com
