ENTERTAINMENT

Festival expands to International

JACK WALTON
Tribune Correspondent

John Pangani staged his inaugural South Bend Reggae Festival 10 years ago. For this year’s 10th annual event, he’s changed the name and added an extra day.

In the interim, the name switched to South Bend Reggae & World Music Festival in order to reflect that there’s much more going on than a reggae concert. Now, Pangani has chosen to call it the South Bend International Festival, and it takes place Friday and Saturday at the St. Joseph County Fairgrounds.

Pangani says the name change reflects the diversity of the audience members as well as it does the performers on stage.

“At our festival, we see people from all over Africa: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. We’ve even had people from Congo. You name it. From the Caribbean, we’ve had visitors from Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Costa Rica. I’ve been seeing a lot of Spanish-speaking people coming from Mexico and Venezuela. Of course, there’s Americans, and Indians, Chinese. We were missing out on too much when it was only ‘reggae.’ ”

Pangani is from the Republic of Malawi, in southeast Africa. Proceeds from the festival help his Pangani Foundation with humanitarian projects in Malawi, which is an impoverished country. Currently, Pangani is in the process of upgrading bathroom facilities in schools, because they have been so substandard that girls have been dropping out in large numbers due to reasons of modesty and sanitation concerns.

The Pangani Foundation has also provided medical supplies to a Malawian hospital and computers and books for a school. The foundation takes for its motto a quote from Nigerian author Kalu Ndukwe Kalu: “The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.”

The event pulls in vendors and food caterers from throughout the Midwest, offering culinary treats from regular hamburgers to Caribbean and African dishes such as oxtail and jerk chicken.

“It’s like having an international food festival within an international music festival, alongside international arts and crafts. We’ve had people who pay at the gate, eat the food and they’re gone. They’re only there for the food. They’ll ask where else they can find it,” Pangani says. “There’s food that you just don’t find in restaurants here.”

The arts and crafts dimension includes items such as handmade jewelry.

“You can rarely find this kind of thing in stores,” Pangani says. “You can only find it in special places.”

Much of Pangani’s budget in previous years has gone to pulling in celebrity headliners such as Pato Banton and King Yellowman. This year, the promoter decided to skip the star power and add more bands, most of whom are local.

Friday’s lineup kicks off with the easygoing island sounds of JT Buffet. Harvey Stauffer’s popular Elwood Splinters Blues Band and Tejano music from Los Hermanos Bueno come next. The night concludes with a set from Florida-based pop-reggae band sowFlo.

Rhythm Works opens the action Saturday, hosting a drum circle. Los Hermanos Bueno performs for a second time, and local R&B artist Darryl Buchanan plays a set as well.

A highlight of Saturday’s lineup will be Zambian musician Mathew Tembo, who plays a variety of instruments, including the kalimba, an African thumb piano.

“That guy is amazing,” Pangani says. “He uses a lot of handmade instruments from Africa. He’s doing something unique.”

Two reggae bands finish the evening: Chicago’s Dub Dis and Kalamazoo’s Zion Lion Band.

Stylistically, blues sits nicely next to reggae. After all, Bob Marley himself featured guitarists Al Anderson and Donald Kinsey in the Wailers band, playing blues solos over reggae rhythms. Pangani notes that Tejano music is not all that far removed, either.

“You might not understand the lyrics, but you can feel it,” he says. “You know what they’re talking about. It’s in the rhythm, and you see people dancing the same way.”

The second day should encourage campers to show up in good numbers.

“We’ve gotten calls from California, New York, Florida — people asking how many days the festival is. One day? Well, it’s not worth it,” Pangani says. “The campers want more than music: food, entertainment, everything else.”

Becoming a two-day festival should be a smooth transition.

“It’s been part of the business plan since we started,” Pangani says. “We knew we could only start with one day, with hopes of going to two days, three days, four days — who knows? All week!”

Mathew Tembo performs Saturday at the South Bend International Festival held at the St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds. (Photo provided)

Who: South Bend International Festival

When: Gates open 3 p.m. Friday, music from 5-11 p.m.; gates open 2 p.m. Saturday, music from 3 p.m.- midnight

Where: St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds, 5117 Ironwood Road, South Bend

Cost: $15-$10 each day; free for ages 11 and younger; tickets available at all Martin’s Super Markets

For more information: Call 574-307-0183 or visit the website southbendinternationalfestival.com