Controversial Christian concert sees mixed crowd in Edmonton

Crowds gathered for a Sean Feucht concert at the Alberta legislature Friday, along with protesters. CTV News Edmonton's Brenden Purdy reports.

American singer Sean Feucht played a show to a mixed crowd at the Alberta legislature Friday night – some fans, some protesters.

By the show’s official start at 6 p.m., more than 1,000 concertgoers had set up on the southeast lawn.

Behind the fans stood a rainbow-clad crowd of between 50 to 100 people protesting the message of the concert, a turnout that organizer Chris Berthelot told CTV News Edmonton gives him hope.

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“This is a very personal issue for me. There are people in my life who are part of this community, who I care about, who I work with, who I spend my life with,” Berthelot said in an interview before the concert.

He’s part of local initiative Let Us Protest, which rallied people online to gather at the legislature Friday evening.

Berthelot previously said in a Facebook message that the protest’s goal was to stand up to Feucht’s “queerphobia, which is a symptom of a rising tide of hatred towards the 2SLGBTQ+ community.”

Feucht’s tour, however, is no stranger to protest.

Berthelot knows this, too, and said the group wasn’t there to cause a commotion.

“They’re concertgoers,” he said. “They’re here because they’re either listening to music or they agree with Sean. There’s no point in trying to win them over, because if we could, they’d be with us.

“I don’t want to play this, ‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us,’ thing, but there is a time where people pick sides and there’s no point.”

Controversy followed Feucht to Edmonton after a string of cancelled Canadian shows put the spotlight on his Christian nationalist views and support of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

A volunteer at Friday’s show, Casey Brost, told CTV News Edmonton the west is sending the nation a message.

“[Feucht] has been doing this in Canada for a couple years now, but because we’re at the legislative grounds, I thought this was a significant time for their ministry and for their city to let the message of Jesus’ love (be) known to the city,” Brost said, adding that event staff are thankful the event wasn’t cancelled.

Previous events in multiple cities had been cancelled out of concern for potential protest and counter-protest, citing major security concerns.

Feucht successfully played in Saskatoon on Thursday night, although a protest days before made the situation precarious when people gathered to speak against the city approving his permit.

Because of prior concerns, security was in full force around the grounds, with sheriffs keeping a watchful eye and the event grounds security also scattered along the lawn.

But both concertgoers and protesters simply wanted their message to be heard.

In a post on X Friday afternoon, Feucht told his fans he had made it to Edmonton and publicly thanked a woman who had brought him honey, pies and homemade cookies.

“Every bite of these removes the sting of any protesters and trolls online,” said Feucht.

“I want our message to resonate through, which is standing up for what’s right,” Berthelot said. “And to do that sometimes it means letting people play their music, even if you don’t like it.”

Still, Berthelot’s message to the provincial government about this concert?

“Stop it,” he said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Angela Amato, Brenden Purdy and Dave Mitchell