The sound of upbeats and horn sections can only mean one thing. Before you say it: no, I didn’t just start Tony Hawk Pro Skater and have Mozzarella Sticks in the oven. It means that the Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival has arrived. After an impressive 24 years of festival programming, the Ska & Reggae Society crafted a lineup perfectly suited to celebrate their 25th year. This year’s lineup had a ton of highlights, from band’s hailing as far as Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and the UK, to stellar festival alumni, the society made sure their milestone year was packed with talent. Because the lineup was too good to pass up on, Rocktographers covered 3 of the 5 days of this year’s festival and I think I can share on behalf of the team that it was a great decision.
The Ska & Reggae Festival started off on Wednesday with one of their iconic free shows. I say iconic because the talent you’re getting is far beyond that of a free show. Each year, their free shows include international talent that could easily be worth a premium ticket to see. For Wednesday, we managed to catch two incredible groups. The first artist was Ammoye, a Jamacian-Canadian singer whose music was inspired by her early listening of Bob Marley. The 6x Juno Award Nominee played to a packed ship point and featured some stellar tunes. The way her voice harmonized with her back-up singer was that of pure delight. The second performer we caught on day 1 was Antidoping from Mexico. The society has had some amazing connections to Latin American performers over the years and this year was no different. Antidoping played a blend of Reggae and Cumbia, which resulted in a sound that is uniquely theirs. Looking around, you could see a diverse crowd of all ages and backgrounds enjoying their music. The welcoming feeling of this festival has stayed true over the years and like always, their first day was nothing short of amazing.
For the second day of the festival, we were met with a very hot sun shining down on Ship Point. As we made sure to hydrate and stay cool, we caught local group Baby Boy & The Earthly Delights. Playing a variety songs including covers and some originals, these locals know how to open a show. They have that west coast sound to them that fit just right with today’s lineup. Due to some scheduling changes, our next band was The Dang Package, a local Rock Band. While it might seem odd to have a rock band play the Ska & Reggae Festival, previous festival programming has always been shown to bend and welcome genres around the two main genres. As a replacement, this band was a solid choice. Up next were Nanaimo Ska legends, The Kiltlifters. Having played the 2nd festival back when it was just called Ska Fest, it was a great reunion for the group. All the members of the band went on to be in other great groups but it’s always exciting coming back together to play some classic tracks. Speaking of reunions, the headliner for Day 2 was the festival’s long-awaited reunion with their one of their favorite Colombian bands, Skampida. It makes complete sense why this band has returned to their second home time after time. Skampida played some of the most energetic music seen during the day. The lead bassist with a powerful horn section behind him made for some powerful lively music. Another day filled with zero disappointment.
For our third and final day, we had a lot of places to be. Our day started off at the Victoria Curling Club for a live taping of the In Defence of Ska Podcast with Aaron Carnes. His guests for this episode were Jay Navarro of The Suicide Machines and Vic Ruggerio of The Slackers. Their hour plus long discussion went over a range of topics including the guest’s time navigating their respective ska scenes as their bands formed, bands they thought didn’t receive enough credit, and how the scene has changed over the years. They also went into personal stories they had accumulated over the years. A truly inspiring interview which will be posted online sometime in the near future.
From there, we made our way to Ship Point for two big Reggae performers. The first being Big Mountain from the United States. Having been around since the late 80’s, Big Mountain performed some of their timeless covers including their iconic version of Baby, I Love Your Way by Peter Frampton. While that was a track everyone was looking forward to, a personal highlight was hearing their cover of Bobby Caldwell’s What you won’t do for love. I have always loved this song and this Reggae twist on an old classic was pure bliss. Finishing up our time outside was Chilean Reggae group, Gondwana. The legendary Latin Reggae group made their Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival debut and they gave it all to the crowd. It is always amazing to see fans so excited when a band they’ve wanted to see for so long finally arrive. I managed to talk to a few concert attendees and Gondwana was that band they had waited so long for. While I can’t speak for them, I think they performance paid off for the long wait.
It was time to head inside for our last experience of this year’s festival. We made our way back to the Victoria Curling Club for a night of Ska, Punk, and Rockabilly? You got that right. We started by catching Ontario Rockabilly outfit, The Creepshow, who seemed to play through injuries based on their lead singer wearing a walking cast. That didn’t stop the band from absolutely rocking the stage. As the sound of guitars, drums, and upright bass began to flow, the mosh pit started to grow. At one point, you could see fans starting a circle pit and the place going crazy. From there the night quieted down but not by too much as New York’s very own, The Slackers, were up on the stage. This band has been a festival favorite for years with some fans seeing them as much as 16 times. There’s not many Ska Bands that feature a Harmonica and Upright Electric Bass, which is what makes The Slackers so special. I doubt I’ll ever get tired of seeing The Slackers live. One thing that did make me tired however, was seeing the mosh pit that ensued as soon as the day 3 headliners went on stage. The Suicide Machines from Detroit made their long-awaited island debut at this year’s festival and fans had been looking forward to it for so long. Like many, my first experience hearing The Suicide Machines was playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater. There was nothing better than nailing that sick combo on classic mode and hearing this group rip it up. It all came full circle with this set and after so many years, the band still had just as much energy as when they first released their hard-hitting tracks. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
To me, The Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival help ring in Festival Season 2024 and they are the perfect festival to hold that responsibility. Dane Roberts and his team always put together an incredible showcase of talent each year. I personally want to shoutout fellow writers Rags Blake and Michael Luis, who are also a part of the team that makes this Festival happen. This year was an outstanding success in my eyes and I cannot wait to see the rest of the society’s programming this year and of course, their 26th instalment of the festival next year. With this review out the way, I think I’ll go play some Tony Hawk Pro Skater now and before I go, this is a direct message to the Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival: Where were the Mozzarella Sticks?
