Thursday July 28th :

After last night, I felt happy to wake up in my garden of eden, along the Ceze river and to be able to sleep until 11am under the shadow of trees all over our campsite !

After another barbecue and a good rest in the afternoon we decided to go early to the festival  to enjoy the Dub Station area while it is not overcrowded. Until the begining of Jahtari's set, Blackboard Jungle and OBF played some of their best dubplates (like a recut of the cuss cuss riddim by OBF or the great roots tune by Rockers Disciples & Echo Ranks that has been pressed on vinyl since the festival). As always the selection are complementary, roots versus digital reggae !

Then Jahtari came  with his 8-bit digital reggae selection with many recuts of some reggae classics with dubplates by singers like Soom T, Solo Banton, El Fata ...

The digital style was highly represented tonight with one of the wickedest singer from the 80's, Carl Meeks backed by OBF selectors ! So many classics like : Haul & Pull,Weh Dem Fa, Danger, Tuff Scout ...

For the third time in Benicassim in Spain, after sixteen years in Italy, the Rototom Sunsplash will take place from august 16th till august 22nd. This festival is the longest in Europe and also the largest, with 230 000 people in the audience during the last edition.

I've never been there, but every year, at the end of august, it's the same routine, my lucky friends, who could go there, tell me the same story : "you missed something biiiiig !!!!!". First thing, you have to know, is that  the location is 15 minutes far from the beach and as you can guess the weather is always sunny. The camping area is not a simple field, it is a real camping place with cooking areas, clean showers and toilets and  trees which is important to protect yourself from the sun and have a good rest.

Moreover, the most important thing is the atmosphere : it breathes reggae all over ! 6 stages, debates,  areas for non-profit organization stands and all branches of reggae music are covered : reggae, dancehall, dub, sound system, ska, rocksteady.

Which lead us to the line up, in my eyes one of the two best in Europe (if you read my blog you'll find out which is other

one  :

• Concerts on the main stage : the good balance between reggae legends and  newcomers, roots reggae and dancehall masters.

=> Thursday 16th : Morgan Heritage, Sly & Robbie feat Ernest Ranglin & Monty Alexander and Bitty Mc Lean, Beres Hammond and the veteran Derrick Morgan.

=> Friday 17th : Alborosie & friends, Micheal Rose (singer of Black Uhuru) and Tanya Stephens.

=> Saturday 18th : Freddy Mc Gregor & Chino, Raging Fyah, Giuliano Palma & The Bluebeaters, Marcia Griffiths, Kymani Marley and the young and talented Andrew Tosh, son of Peter Tosh.

=> Sunday 19th : Steel Pulse, Barrington Levy, Protoje, Jah Mason and Muchachito Bombo Infierno.

=> Monday 20th : The dancehall living legend Beenie Man, Max Romeo, The Congos and Cultura Profetica.

=> Tuesday 21st : Tarrus Riley, Johnny Osbourne (first time in Europe since 20 years), C-Sharp and Call 13.

=> Wednesday 22nd : the African reggae ambassador, Alpha Blondy, Zion Train, Etana, Wailing Souls and Obrint Pas.

• Dub Station: my favorite style in reggae. This area will be powered by Blackboard Jungle 24 scoops (more than 20 Kilowatts) heavyweight sound system !

=> Thursday 16th : Mungo's HiFi and Soom T from Scotland, Dread Movement.

=> Friday 17th : The Disciples, Russ D and Jonah Dan, Equal Brothers.

=> Saturday 18th : Words Sound and Power, sound system of the legendary UK producer Robert Tribulation, feat Sister Aisha on the vocal, Watts Attack.

=> Sunday 19th : Another great Uk producer will be there, Gussie P, founder of Sip a Cup label, Badalonians Sound, Sr Wilson and Irie Souljah.

=> Monday 20th : Year 3000 style dubwize night with Iration Steppas and OBF.

=> Tuesday 21s :Dubateers and Kenny Knotts from England, Leones Hulmides from Spain.

=> Wednesday 22nd : The main event for me, Jah Shaka special extended session. Finally a real Jah Shaka session, like in London, all night long !

Every night, Blackboard Jungle will open the dance in the Dub Station area.

• Dancehall stage : By now, the line up is not finished, but there are already some big names Rory from Stone Love, which is one of the oldest jamaican sound system and Bass Odyssey, last winner of the World Clash in Jamaica.

• Ska Club : this stage is dedicated to rocksteady and ska music. The firt names are coming from Japan, where the ska scene is certainly the most active since a very long time. You will hear the band called Tex & Sunflower Seed from Tokyo and Caribbean Dandy, which is a crew of selecta's and crazy collectors who has already been playing all around the world.

As you can see, the line up represents every kind of reggae music : ska, dancehall, reggae, dub, roots, concerts and sound systems !

Hope, it will help you to make the right choice for your summer holidays !

As the line up for the next edition should be announced soon, I decided to do a review of last year Garance Reggae Festival, a special one, because it was the 20th birthday and the second one in Bagnols-sur-Ceze. In fact, before the last edition along the Ceze river, the Garance Reggae Festival took place in Paris.

First, I'd like to says that I love this festival for the great line up but also for the atmosphere : people are respectful towards each other, in the camping area and inside the festival, sunny weather, the Ceze river and the proximity of the beautiful city of Bagnols were you can buy food and drinks. All those advantages will help you understand how nice it is to spend a typical day for me around this festival.

First we settled our camping place along the Ceze river, to be sure to find a good place we came 2 days before the festival, also to enjoy the sunny weather. A typical day is like this, waking up in front of the river, a jump in the water, breakfast then departure to the city to buy food and drinks, after a coffee at a terrasse in the city. Barbecue and swimming in the river during the day and then ready to skank all night long in the festival area !

The line up was excellent, the good balance between foundation artists and more recent ones, in my opinion the biggest names were :

Burning Spear, Midnite, Johnny Clarke and the great Dub Asante backing band, Twinkle Brothers and Studio One Revue backed by Soul Stereo Sound with Carlton Livingston, Dilinger, King Stitt, Willi Williams, Jim Brown & Prince Jazzbo.

Although, I've enjoyed those concerts the best part for me was the Dub Station corner powered once again by Blackboard Jungle and OBF heavy sound systems, 6 stacks, 2 x 12 bass bins !!!

Roots guests played on Blackboard Jungle sound system, like Jah Shaka and digital and stepper guests played on OBF stacks, like the mighty King Jammy.

The line up of Dub Station corner was: T.I.T., Lion Youth, Stepping Forward HiFi, Jah Shaka, King Jammy's, Jahtari, Gussie P, Iration Steppas and of course Blackboard Jungle and OBF. Many singers were invited : Hughie Izachaar, Sandeeno, Carl Meeks, Prince Livijah, Macky Banton, Ras Mykha, Shanti D.
It is also important to big up the Jumbo Rock Sound System who played 4 days long in the camping place with the veteran Ganja Tree on the mic !

Wednesday 27th July :

First day, I'm well prepared, physically and mentally, for 4 days of vibes. First thing to notice, the festival area has changed, the Dub Station corner is bigger and far enough from all vinyl sellers, which is bettter for their ears and easier for us to listen to a vinyl before buying it.

After a warm up with Blackboard Jungle and OBF, I'm going to the first and only concert I don't wanna miss, Burning Spear. My first reggae concert was Burning Spear 12 years ago in a rock festival, great memories. This concert was amazing, almost 2 hours long, loaded only with big tunes, known by every reggae addicts in the place.

The second event of the night was the Studio One Revue with Soul Stereo and many legendary veterans from Studio One. I saw the first 30 minutes, to have the pleasure to see all of them together on the same stage, but I wanted to go the dub area.

In facts, I was curious about this french producer called T.I.T. .The only thing I knew was that he used to produce acidcore and transe music in the 90's. You can clearly hear these influences into his dub productions. His set was amazing, he mashed up the whole place with singers like Ras Mykha or Shanti D. Not surprised that his productions are now played by OBF or Mark Iration.

Next post coming soon for day 2 at Garance Reggae Festival !