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Can We Come Back Again To Wales? The UK needs a dedicated reggae festival. The Reggae Wales crew have made it happen. |
 
I'm talking to Reggae Wales manager Dean Williams. He's working frantically to finalise the line up for the third Reggae Festival Of Wales which takes place on the tenth and eleventh of July. Holding a two day reggae event in West Wales may be a mad idea, but it seems to be working. "We want to showcase some new acts and I'm receiving three to four CDs or promo packs a day from unsigned artists across Europe, America, Jamaica and Canada as well. For the headline acts we ask our members who they'd like. We get a lot of feedback from them and have our own favourites as well. We both feel very strongly about the veterans that have lead the way. I also like the new breed that's coming through, there's a lot of good quality digital music out there." Last year's veterans were Mikey Dread, Sly & Robbie and Ijahman Levi; the young guns included Nucleus Roots and Blood Shanti.
Dean and Ras Charles share an appreciation of roots and culture. "That's the type of music we love and believe in. It's the type of music festival we want to do," But they are from very different backgrounds. Ras Charles was brought up around rasta sound system culture in the south east of England whilst Dean is a softly spoken Welshman. "I used to go to a lot of free festivals many years ago. The hippy fests, the solstice parties and things like that. Our ambition would be to put on a completely free festival, but corporate sponsorship is required to do that sort of stuff." Organising an event of this scale takes a lot more than idealism. They've had to be both persevering and pragmatic. As Dean says, "We've had no big sponsorship on any of the festivals we've done. It's simply been a question of asking how we can do it as safely and efficiently as possible. This year we're expecting at least three thousand punters and we should have three stages: The main out-door stage, a bigger indoor stage for the late night entertainment and a separate arena of its own which is the Reggae Lounge." The event will be taking place at the Haverfordwest Showground in Pembrokeshire and the Reggae Lounge is their solution to the difficult matter of representing the UK dub sound system scene at a festival. Gathering several heavyweight sounds together at an outside venue in this country is never going to be possible. "The local council do not like sound systems. They are the only thing they've ever moaned about, mainly because the bass can be heard five miles away. So unfortunately having them here in any kind of clash format is not possible. So we invite one sound system to be there as the main system, we bring in a few extra things and have a small stage with drums and bass so that we can mix up the live music with the guest selectors. We arrange some sort of playing order and just go for it like."
Talking to a reggae promoter with a Welsh accent might be a novelty at the moment but its probably something we should get used to. The Reggae Festival Of Wales looks certain to continue growing and establishing a reputation and the scene in Wales is healthy. 'Uprising' is probably the best known regular event in the area. As Dean explains, "They've just moved to a bigger venue, are getting some good sound systems from across the world and are talking to us about getting some international artists over. Then there's the Dub Club in Swansea, they hold some good nights and get some guest sound systems down there. Charles has his own sound, Black Warrior, a roots reggae sound system with proper valve amplifiers and everything. He does gigs all over the country as well as local and we use his sound when we do something locally." The real test for any festival is its ability to attract the top international names. Dean is confident, "A lot of the artists we get for our festival are either coming from or going to the big festivals in Europe. We get a vibe and feeling from them about what its like abroad and everyone's been begging to come back to us next year."
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