Kanye West’s Sunday Service event has been a big hit since its January 2019 debut. Held every week at Ye’s Calabasas property, the service began circling the internet and immediately became a sight to see. Kanye began changing locations, even brought his Sunday Service to Coachella, and now is touring the US to spread the good word.
Sunday Service combines Kanye’s love of music with his love of Jesus Christ. The choir, The Samples, sings gospel tunes, as well as gospel-inspired remixes of classic secular songs. On the Netflix original, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, Kanye described Sunday Service:
It’s just an idea we had to open up our hearts to make music that we felt was as pure and as positive as possible and just do it for an hour every Sunday, and have something where people can just come together and feel good with their families.
Ye and his SS crew recently stopped in Baton Rouge to perform during Southern University’s homecoming weekend. On Friday evening (Nov. 1), Sunday Service was in conjunction with an event called Brunchella, which featured — you guessed it — brunch. General tickets to the event totaled to about $55.
Nearly 10,000 strangers from near and far gathered at Bethany Church and from what I saw, everyone loved the event. Overflowing with people from different walks of life, so many attendees got their worship and their lives. But what most didn’t get was a proper meal. The brunch part of the event was supposed to offer an array of breakfast foods, plus mimosas. But according to social media, the food was far from presentable.
A photo began circling around of what looked like scraps of food. Some even compared the food to what was served at Ja Rule’s failed Fyre Festival. In the photo, a person is seen holding a paper plate with two dried out pancakes, two struggle pieces of bacon, and a super struggle sausage patty. Kimberly Kinchen, who posted the photo, took to Facebook to express her disgust after paying nearly $110 for two tickets:
“This is the wonderful & COLD brunch BUFFET we are being served by Boil & Roux BR,” she wrote. “& the server looked at me crazy when I asked for another pancake. WAFB Channel 9 can y’all cover a story on this because I want my coins back for a general admission ticket (FREE TICKET). Edit: I opted out of a small scoop of cold grits.”
Kinchen also posted the event’s flyer and a screenshot of the total she paid for the tickets. To be clear: Kanye’s Sunday Service in Baton Rouge was free to attend. The brunch was an add-on for about $50. Many fans were confused because the event was being promoted as if you had to pay to enter. Kanye nor his choir received any money to perform. Those who paid for the brunch were quick to point the finger at Kanye and his crew, but the catering company, Lauryn’s Fine Catering, took responsibility of ill-preparing “ONE” attendee’s meal. The company released a statement, saying:
“The catering company acknowledges it did not provide adequate food for ONE attendee and a social media post went viral. Kanye West and the Sunday Service collective should be disassociated with such claims surrounding the food at the event.”