National Quartet Convention
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The National Quartet Convention (NQC) is an annual gathering of Southern Gospel quartets and musicians. It is currently held at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
[edit] History
The first National Quartet Convention was held in 1957. Conceived by J. D. Sumner, it featured all the major gospel groups at a three-day event at the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee. After breaking even the first couple of years, the NQC was moved to Birmingham, Alabama in 1959 and Atlanta, Georgia in 1960. It returned to Memphis in 1961 and was drawing annual crowds of 20,000 by the mid-1960s. Sumner bought the convention in 1971 and moved it to Nashville, Tennessee, where it remained until 1993. Since then, the convention has made its home in Louisville.
J. G. Whitfield owned the convention from 1980-1982. A group of industry-member investors then bought the convention from Whitfield. A board of directors currently operates NQC.
2006 marked the 50th edition of the National Quartet Convention. NQC is still marketed and described in the words of its founder J. D. Sumner as "the Granddaddy of them all".
[edit] Events
Over the years, the National Quartet Convention grew from three days of concerts to a six-day multi-purpose event. A main attraction at Louisville is the exhibit hall with approximately 500 booths where artists, record labels, CD duplication plants, media entities, booking agents, Christian bookstores, and other industry related organizations display their products and offer their services. Fans also have an ample opportunity to meet and greet their favorite artists in the exhibit area.
A concert is held each evening in Freedom Hall, typically approaches sellout numbers for the weekend concerts. These concerts run for approximately six hours and feature non-stop music from the major Southern Gospel artists spaced at 10-20 minute intervals. The Singing News presents the Fan Awards on Thursday night. Afternoons are devoted to showcases, some for new talent and others for conceptual events. For example, one popular showcase in recent years has been Mike Speck’s "Choral Music Extravaganza." There is a talent competition during the week as well.
In addition to the events for the fans, industry members routinely schedule meetings and even recording sessions to coincide with the convention. Groups needing to replace a member make new contacts at NQC and sometimes conduct auditions during the week. Various business deals are made or renegotiated. Hoping to gain exposure, up and coming artists schedule showcases at nearby hotels. Record labels court radio and media by feeding them meals, taking them on riverboat cruises and facilitating access for interviews with the artists.
In the late 1990s, the convention added three additional events designed to take the Southern Gospel convention experience to regions distant from Louisville. These new events were the Great Western Convention in Fresno, California; the Canadian Quartet Convention in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada; and the Central Canada Gospel Quartet Convention in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Within a few years, though, they had sold or abandoned those events in favor of focusing on the main event in Louisville.
