4th Annual Island Reggae Festival

Island Reggae Festival will be held at its new for 2015 location - the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds allowing the event offerings to expand in to include 17 different music groups on three stages, carnival rides (included with ticket price), a car showcase, a rugby tournament, a tattoo showcase, a motorcycle showcase, and an Island Cultural Dance presentation and competition. The gates open at 10 am and the event concludes with a fireworks display in celebration of Independence Day at 11pm.

Artists on the lineup for Island Reggae Festival consistently include some of the Pacific Islands’ greatest talents, now in 2015 the lineup brings artists from Australia, Hawaii as well as some of Jamaica’s biggest reggae artists including the Grammy-nominated Third World a group founded four decades ago and the family of siblings, Morgan Heritage who will perform the closing set at the Island Reggae Festival. The Green will also be on the Island Reggae Stage, a group who have received numerous artist awards in Hawaii as well as remaining at the top of the radio and sales charts since their debut in 2010.

Pacific Island reggae music has a great deal of attention both at traditional broadcast radio and online as those that have moved from their birthplace or those that are the next generation, maintain a strong cultural connection through music. Some of the biggest artists in the genre today will be at Island Reggae Festival including House of Shem, Sammy J, Kapena, Maoli, Finn da Groovah, Drew Deezy, Teki, Spawnbreezie, Trey Smoov, Samu, Luisa Lavulo, Essel and Servants.

The event will also include a Diabetes Awareness initiative and the Red Cross will be on hand as part of a blood drive. As to how these community-health oriented aspects of the festival come into play, event organizer Danny Perez explains, “This festival is a platform we created to celebrate our Pacific Islander culture through music and dance. We are also bringing awareness as to the diabetes epidemic our people face.”