Reggae Sundance 2014 - Event report

reggae sundance 2014: the return of the reggae sundance weekend (Friday-saturday)

Finally after a long wait the return of the Reggae Sundance weekend was there. The last weekend edition was in 2008 and suddenly the message appeared that Reggae Sundance had to quit. Sad news at the time and after years of hoping and rumors there it was last year, as a one-day event. The event was a great succes last year so the organisation decided to make it a weekend again. We were thrilled by that news and Friday the 8th of August that day had come... we were on our way to the Reggae Sundance festival 2014. With high expectations of course and we had a blast but with a little side note here and there...

A lot of people already spoke about the weather but that wasn't a major problem for us. The only time when it was starting to get annoying was the time they made us wait after four o' clock in front of the entrance. It seems to be a tradition not to open at the announced time but just when people were getting grumpy the gates opened and the people started to get inside. We must say that the security indeed was a big improvement compared to last year. They were friendly and very easy going, we felt at home instantly. Reggae Sundance was back and people started to build up their camping spots as quick as possible to find some shelter for their stuff and themselves. It stopped raining pretty quick though so people could gather around on different places and link up. Much niceness agwaan!

Friday night warm-up
The Early birds who were there on Friday didn't came for nothing. There was a nice warm up going on and artists like Mr. Williamz, Dillinger and Trinity were giving their shows on stage in the Yard alongside sounds like United Sounds, Crucial Sounds and Ovadoze Movement. The vibes were nice and people were getting ready for the Sundance weekend. Then Rafadelic came to close the evening before people were going to their tents. Until this moment we cannot understand why this deejay was the closing act for every evening on Reggae Sundance and we were strongly under the impression we weren't the only ones. Of course we respect Rafadelic and we understand the link between DUB music and reggae but this was too much. There are so many good reggae sounds available in the Netherlands. This was a waste of money in our humble opinion.

Iba Mahr(JAM) & Kabaka Pyramid(JAM) - Reggae Revival
We were looking forward to the performances of these youngster bringing roots reggae music back to where it belongs. Iba Mahr al ready made some wicked songs and videos like: Diamond Sox and Great is H.I.M. Kabaka Pyramid is known from tunes like Warrior alongside Protoje and Never gonna be a slave. They both made quite an impression in our eyes. The conscious and humble singing by Iba Mahr and the more up-tempo style of Kabaka Pyramid. It was a sweet opener to what promised to be a BIG day. The sun was shining all day and the weather was sweet, it made us wanna move our dancing feet. There is no doubt we will more here of these two upcoming warriors in the near future...

Photos by Irie-Photography

Jesse Royal - The small axe
Jesse Royal is an artist we are listening to quite sometime now. This young vocalist already delivered some potential hit tunes like Modern day Judas and this morning. His sweet singing voice in combination with his appearance are making him a potential star for sure. In Jamaica he is considered one of the best youngsters in the business. We al ready saw this artist at Reggae Geel and this time he lived up to the expectations again. He had a nice moment with legend Dean Frasier the youngster payed his respects to this Reggae Sundance veteran. Like we said last time in our opinion Jesse Royal has the potential to become a headliner in the future... so keep a special eye out for 'the Small Axe' Jesse Royal as we would say...

Photo's by Irie-Photography

Legend Big Youth
Jamaican legend Big Youth came on stage after Jesse Royal and this dancehall veteran enjoyed himself to the fullest. He reminded us a bit of another legend Lee Scratch Perry but Big Youth's on stage performance certainly was better. He played with his voice the entire performance and there was never a dull moment watching this entertainer. Of course this man is not a great singer compared to Luciano or some but he has his own style. What a joyfull sight it was when Big Youth removed his hat and released his dreads. He was waving them around like he had hundreds not caring and just living the moment.

Dub Inc. - Sundance debut
The show by Dub Inc. was simply amazing. What a powerful band this is. Dub Inc. hailing from France blew the crowd away. A perfect combination of the sweet arabic-style singing by Hakim "Bouchkour" Meridja and the dark deep power voice by Aurelion "Komlan" Zohou made this performance one to remember for sure. The band also was perfect and we cannot say anything negative about this show. When they are in your neighborhood you should definitely go out and see them. They are singing in French and English but even when they sing in French (and you don't speak French like us) the songs hit you instantly. We were a bit dissapointed by the fact they didn't played 'See di Youth' but 'Rudeboy' was a perfect highlight of a powerful performance

I-Octane & Beenieman - Dancehall vibes
Jamaican dancehall stars I-Octane and Beenie Man were on Reggae Sundance to represent Dancehall music. Of course they are old timers compared to some youngster and we were curious about their performances even though dancehall music is not our favorite music. Since I-Octane closed the Dancehall night for Reggae Sunsplash in Jamaica we especially wanted to see him but his show never really took off in our opinion, he definitely tried but the Dutch/European festival crowd is not Dancehall crowd is our experience.

Of course there was your typical reggae festival market, with good vibes and a chance to grab something to eat. Bright colors everywhere and different music booming out of little or bigger speakers. People were taking a look at what the market had to offer. There was a great variety of foods available from rice meals to little pancakes and cold drinks. There also were some food and drink stands next to the Yard. The organisation made sure you never had to walk (or swim) far to get some food or drinks. The toilets were cleaned everyday and that's a BIG plus. A little minor was the fact that they didn't put metal plates on the muddy spots soon enough so sometimes you had the feeling you were taking a swim (especially on Sunday) and of course the fact that the tent was closed on Sunday (of course for Safety reasons but we really wanted to see Skarra Mucci...).

Photos by Irie-photography

Midnite @ the Yard
Midnite was one of the absolute highlights of this edition of Reggae Sundance. They played a full set of 1,5 hours and they brought some spiritual vibes to the Yard tent. Al though there was sunshine all over, the tent was full of people who didn't wanna miss the performance by the Legends hailing from the Virgin Island. 'Propaganda', 'Rasta to the Bone' & 'Proceed' are just some of the songs they brought to Sundance and we surely hope we can catch this band in a stage somewhere in NL in the near future. We hope to see more of these deep roots acts on Reggae Sundance...

Beautifull on-stage video of the performance of Midnite in the Yard @ Reggae Sundance 2014 by Reggae-Agenda.NL

the Royal symphony of Reggae & Legend John Holt
Especially for the 15th anniversary of Reggae Sundance there was a show by the Royal Symphony of Reggae ft. Dean Frasier alongside John Holt, Luciano and Ali Campbell. The surprisingly refreshing opening by the Royal Symphony of Reggae was promising for what was about to come. A beautiful sight and people were getting excited about what was to come. There were a few minutes of Orchestra music before Legend John Holt came on the stage. The ladies man delivered a quality show but the fact that he is getting old was showing of. Highlight of his performance for us was Ali Baba and the 40 thieves and we were very disappointed about the fact that John Holt didn't play Police in Helicopter. We can understand that he might get tired of playing the same song over and over again, but when you get to see John Holt for the first time, you wanna hear Police in Helicopter. At least we did.. The rest of his performance was of great quality and the legend totally lives up to the name. That and the fact that Luciano was about to came on got the crowd very excited and enjoying it to the maximum!

Luciano & the Royal symphony of Reggae
Luciano simply always delivers this Rastaman should have closed the festival in our opinion but still he got to perform for almost an hour and he went all out. His 'handstand roll-overs' were perfect again and his singing was outstanding. What a class act this is. Of course this is not the first time Luciano performed on Reggae Sundance and we were glad to see such quality artists again on the Reggae Sundance stage! Give Praise to Rastafari, who could it be and many other classic Luciano tunes. It was very nice to see Luciano paying his respect to the Royal Symphony of Reggae and Dean Frasier of course. These two Jamaican legends gave us a show to remember...

More photos by Irie-Photography

Ali campbell(UB40) & the Royal symphony of Reggae
The people are divided when it comes to UB40 people even call them fake reggae artists. We don't judge and we think they have some quality reggae tunes. The opening with some stunning sax play by Dean Frasier and his horns was very good and the entrance of Ali Campbell and his friends was also an uplifting moment but after a while it became dull in our opinion. We started longing for a closing act like Burning Spear or Anthony B especially regarding the amount of money they probably payed for the appearance of UB40 members like Ali Campbell. Still it was nice to see the Royal Symphony of Reggae and musicians like Dean Frasier alongside UB40. Next year we hope to see a different closure to the Saturday night!