UCLA ReggaeFest 2008

By Jamaican Salsero • May 31, 2008

The 22nd Annual UCLA JazzReggae Festival was held over the Memorial Day weekend. It was a “weekend of peace, love and music.” Sunday was Jam day with performances from acts such as The Roots, Immortal Technique, Tribal Jazz and Goapele. Monday was the Reggae day and featured act such as Stephen Marley, Mr. Vegas, Selena Serrano and Alaine. As usual, I only attended the Reggae portion of the festival. This year the organizers of the student-run festival placed on emphasis on being as environmentally sustainable as possible. The second smaller stage used for local acts was solar-powered, there were saplings all over the field that patrons were allowed to take home, there were educational booths and lot more recycling bins this year. I arrived just as the last local act was finishing up on the solar-powered stage (I think it was Pangea Collective, not sure). Both sides of the field were lined with local area vendors (didn’t know there were so many Caribbean-themed eateries in LA County, can never seem to find them though). The first artist on the main stage was Selena Serrano. I thought I had never heard of her until I realized she was the one who did the “Sound Killa (Umbrella Remix)” dubplate. She gave a decent set that was a mix of pop and reggae. Next up was Alaine, who did “Heavenly” (which is my favorite tune on the riddim of the same name). She managed to keep the crowd engaged throughout her entire set. It’s my first time seeing her on stage and I definitely enjoyed her performance. Mr Vegas was next and he gave an extremely energetic performance that included jumping into the crowd, playing selections from other artistes (including a tribute to Natasja Saad, who died in a car accident in Jamaica last year) and bringing on a dancer to show the crowd how to whine. Selena came back for a second set after Vegas had finished, this time around she fared better with the crowd already primed. Stephen Marley was next and was clearly the crowd favorite. He also was the favorite of all the smokers in the crowd as well. His set included a mix of his father’s songs which gave the crowd something to sing along to. He was even joined on stage by his older brother Ziggy to close his set. The final act of the day was King Shango himself, Capleton. I haven’t seen the “fyah man” perform in years and really did not know what to expect, especially considering this was the UCLA Reggaefest. I wasn’t expecting him to do so many of his early dancehall hits and was pleasantly surprised that he did. He clearly isn’t that well known here but still managed to get the crowd engaged during portions of his set. While I initially wasn’t excited about the lineup (mainly due to my preference for dancehall) it turned out to be a very entertaining show. Below a video of each of the performers from the main stage (more videos after the jump).

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Stephen Marley performing at the 2008 UCLA JazzReggae Festival.