Group hopes lineup will provide unity, entertainment

  Daily Bruin File Photo Yami Bolo, backed
by Detour Posse, performs last year at the JazzReggae Festival.

By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Staff

There are those whose sole knowledge of reggae music is
restricted to having once heard Bob Marley’s “One
Love” in commercials advertising trips to Jamaica. Then there
are those who could engage in a lengthy discourse on the diverse
styles of Marley’s more recent counterparts.

In the spirit of educating the less knowledgeable and
entertaining everyone, USAC’s Cultural Affairs Commission is
presenting a day of reggae music Monday as part of the 15th Annual
JazzReggae Festival. Seven reggae performers and close to 75 food,
craft and clothing vendors will be featured.

The commission has put together a lineup in which it takes
pride, including well-known artist Buju Banton, who headlined at
the Bob Marley Day Festival in Long Beach last winter.

“Our lineup is fantastic,” said Shivani Madan, a
fourth-year physical science student and associate director of the
festival. “It’s probably one of the best lineups
we’ve had.”

In addition to Buju Banton, there will be performances from Mad
Cobra, Tony Rebel, TOK, Wayne Wonder, Sugar Black and Quinto
Sol.

“We wanted everyone from up-and-comers, to acts that are
popular right now, to acts that are legends,” said Marselle
Washington, USAC’s cultural affairs commissioner.

Beginning an hour before the first performance and continuing
until the end of the last one, vendors will sell a variety of goods
and foods from Jamaican, African and Creole cultures.

“They make the festival,” Madan said. “They
add the flavor to the whole show.”

The food will include multiethnic selections, as well as typical
festival foods such as barbeque, lemonade, funnel cakes, roasted
corn and kettle popcorn.

  Daily Bruin File Photo Estani Frizell of
"Yeska" performs vocals at last year’s JazzReggae Festival. Vendors
will bring an assortment of items including hand crafted jewelry,
clothes, hats and hemp products. Other booths will house a psychic
and henna tattoo artist. The booths themselves have actually been
proven to draw people to the festival.

“A lot of people who don’t know the music come for
the arts and food,” Madan said.

One of the overall goals of the event is to introduce all kinds
of people to a cultural experience they might not have had
before.

“We want to expose as many people as possible to this kind
of music and the cultural vendors,” Washington said.

Reggae music has long been associated with the movement for
unity and understanding between cultures. In an interview from his
Jamaica home, performing artist Tony Rebel said that the themes of
unity and peace can also be found in his music.

He added that it was important to spread these messages through
festivals such as the UCLA JazzReggae Festival.

The themes of artists like Rebel are expected to reach thousands
of people this year. Attendance last year for the weekend totaled
35,000 people, with the vast majority of participants attending
Reggae Day.

These large turnouts have made the UCLA JazzReggae Festival the
largest student-run festival in the nation, according to
Washington, in part because ticket prices are so low.

Admission for UCLA students, faculty and staff is free, and the
general public pays only $4. This has drawn many people who are
interested in jazz and reggae, but who are unwilling to pay the
higher ticket prices of most festivals.

“The fact that we’re non-profit helps because we can
be affordable and accessible to those people who can’t pay
that much money,” Madan said.

Being easily accessible and attempting to include everyone, the
organizers of Reggae Day hold true to the messages of the music
they are celebrating.

EVENT: Reggae Day is the second day of the 15th
Annual JazzReggae Festival held Sunday and Monday on the Intramural
Field. Vendor booths open at 11 a.m. and the concert begins at
noon. The event closes at 7 p.m. each night. Tickets can be
purchased through the Central Ticket Office on the day of the
event. UCLA students, faculty and staff are free, and general
admission is $4.