Liverpool’s award-winning celebration of reggae music and Jamaican heritage, Positive Vibration, returns in June for a jam-packed weekend of cultural appreciation and positivity.
Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s by the likes of Bob Marley and Toots Hibbert. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. As well as the many sub genres it has created and the mark it has left on the music scene, its also a pretty epic sauce. Liverpool has always had a fantastic Afro-Caribbean community and the city gears up for the annual celebration of reggae music on the 9th and 10th of June across Constellations, Hangar 34 and District in The Baltic Triangle.
Headlining this year’s festival will be legendary 2-Tone band, The Selecter and King of the Sound System, Jah Shaka (full sound system, 5 hour session). This year’s stellar line-up will also feature reggae heavyweights – Scientist, Channel One, Don Letts, Aba Shanti-I, Reggae Roast, Earl Gateshead, MC Brother Culture, Saxon Sound System, Dennis Bovell, Prince Fatty & Horseman, Soul Jazz Records Sound System, Vibronics, Ras Kwame, DJ Andy Smith (former Portishead), Sir Coxsone Outernational Sound System, Trojan Records Official Club Night w/ Pama International, Dubmatix & Charlie P, I-mitri Counteraction, New Town Kings, Hempolics, Backbeat Sound System, Western Promise, Mount Nakara, Golty Farabeau, plus more.
More than music, reggae spans over many different forms of art and this year sees the return of The Art of Reggae Exhibition – a successful collaboration between Positive Vibration and the International Reggae Poster Contest (IRPC). The exhibition, which supports the Alpha Boys School in Jamaica, will showcase 100 reggae-inspired posters, designed by illustrators & artists from all over the world. You’ll also be able to bid on the incredible posters. The launch of the exhibition will be taking place on Wednesday 7th June at Constellations. If you would like to attend, please email info@posvibefest.com. As well as that there will be a panel discussion taking place on the Saturday of the festival, at which, you explore the impact of reggae on British music, culture & society.
On the Saturday of the festival, Positive Vibration will also be hosting a number of creative, educational and dance workshops for the children, including Dub Poetry with Levi Tafari, arts & crafts with Square Pegs, The Rastaquarium and Capoeira with Capoeira For All. Parents will be happy to know children under the age of 12 go free so they can be kept busy whilst you make sure the Jamaican rum is up to scratch. If you would like to play, trade or volunteer at this year’s festival, please email info@posvibefest.com.
Get your tickets here, meet you on the dancefloor.