What: 17th Annual Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival featuring Dub FX, the Black Seeds, Orquestra Brasileira de Musica Jamaicana, Chris Murray, Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra and more
When: Today through Sunday
Where: Various venues, including Ship Point, Distrikt nightclub, Odds Fellows Hall and more
Tickets: Available at Lyle’s Place (770 Yates St.), Tourism Information Centre (812 Wharf St.), the Reef (533 Yates St.), Jupiter (619 Johnson St.), Fascinating Rhythm (51 Commercial St., Nanaimo, V9R 5G3), Area 51 (191 Station St., Duncan, V9L 1M8), and ticketweb.ca
Information: victoriaskafest.ca
A simple name change — from the Victoria Ska Festival to the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival — made a world of difference in 2015. Things should only get better this year, as word of the longtime festival reaches a new audience of music fans.
“More than ever, I really feel it was the right move,” said Dane Roberts, the festival’s founder and artistic director. “So many people are discovering our festival for the first time, just because of that. They would say, ‘I never knew we had a reggae festival!’ People thought of it as the S-K-A festival, thinking that it was an acronym for something. They weren’t aware that we have had great reggae names all these years.”
The popular event entered its 17th year Wednesday with a big bang — an outdoor concert by Toots and the Maytals, one of the longest-running reggae acts to come out of Jamaica.
It’s the type of high-profile booking Roberts has specialized in since 2000, when he founded the off-the-grid event centred on ska, a precursor to reggae.
It has since become the largest and longest-running festival of its kind in North America.
“We were the first ska festival that Canada had, I know that for sure,” Roberts said. “On the timeline, we were before them all.”
Awareness has grown in the years since. However, nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to planning the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival, according to Roberts.
He secured Toots and the Maytals to satisfy the reggae-leaning fans of the festival, but he also booked acts that would draw a younger audience.
“The Black Seeds and Dub FX we anticipate will do really well, but we still have to work hard to get younger people to be exposed to people like Toots and the Maytals, to experience reggae history. They are of a different generation.”
Dub FX and the Black Seeds, which hail from Australia and New Zealand, respectively, lead five days of activity at various venues, including several outdoor performances. Other acts scheduled to appear include Orquestra Brasileira de Musica Jamaicana, Chris Murray and the Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra, among others.
Roberts was particularly pleased with the addition of Brazil’s Orquestra Brasileira de Musica Jamaicana, which he has been trying to hire for seven years. He came into contact with the group at a music-festival conference in Bogota, Colombia.
Other acts from afar give the festival an international flavour, but Roberts always looks to offer a strong local lineup.
“There’s a bit more variety this year, but there’s more local bands, too. And new local bands, which we really like. These new bands — like Party on High Street, Bousada, Cheko & the Lion Rockers — have been inspired by the festival over the years, as well as our year-round programming. We’ve really tried to give these local bands highlighted spots.”
Community outreach is a big part of the festival, before and after the gates open. Roberts and the Victoria B.C. Ska Society spend considerable time on a year-round basis informing audiences about the history of Jamaican music, and how it relates to the festival’s programming.
“When people see how much influence came out of the genre, and how much the genre itself helped create other genres, people will look at it in a different light.”
Thanks to a series of workshops that take place during the event, in addition to a full slate of all-ages shows, free performances and a new culinary arts component, the festival has a wide and ever-growing appeal.
“We have it programmed more like a full-family experience,” Roberts said.
