VICTORIA SKA AND REGGAE FESTIVAL
Where: Ship Point, Victoria Curling Club, and more
When: June 21-25
Tickets: $19.50-$49.50 from or Tourism Victoria Visitor Centre (812 Wharf St.); $165.50 for festival pass
The Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival had its best year to date in 2022, an accomplishment that is not lost on artistic director Dane Roberts.
He’s been at the helm of the five-day festival since 2000, when it debuted as a one-day event at Market Square, and has seen it through the inevitable ups and downs that come with this type of work. His patience was rewarded last year when nearly 2,000 people attended a performance by members of Bob Marley’s backing band, The Wailers, setting a single-show attendance record at the festival.
“I was really happy with the line-up we put together last year, especially under short notice and with the mandates in place,” Roberts said. “I think it was a huge step for our team.”
The festival could set new records next week, thanks to one of its most diverse line-ups to date. Maxi Priest, Chali 2na & the House of Vibe, The Aggrolites, Congo Natty, Stickybuds, Brother Ali, Kid Koala, and Sister Carol are among the headliners, which arguably constitute the strongest collection of acts ever assembled at Skafest.
Nine concerts over five days, at three venues, give the festival quite a sizable footprint in the downtown core. The laidback vibe of the music makes it an appealing entity for walk-by traffic and those with little prior knowledge of the genre, Roberts said. Nothing makes him happier than to hear someone has discovered a new band as a result of Skafest.
“I hope that people want to support us, and enjoy what we’re doing. People come for the music. It’s not only a party. It’s fun, and it’s for music lovers who like to be in an environment that feels good to them.”
The festival has undergone slight changes in recent years — the former Victoria Ska Festival officially added reggae to its title in 2015 — and the proliferation of hip-hop on this year’s roster represents another stylistic step forward. Roberts booked a hip-hop artist (Mos Def) as a headliner for the first time ever in 2013, so having true-blue rappers Brother Ali and Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5) at the top of the bill in 2023 isn’t entirely off script.
That adventurous spirit is what keeps programming by the Victoria BC Ska Society fresh from year to year, both during and away from the festival. “We continue to keep our year-round programming diverse, so we can bring in new audiences,” Roberts said.
“While we don’t have a ska- and reggae-only line-up at the festival like we used to, I feel like we’re still within the realm that is connected to Jamaican music.”
Ska purists might not see the correlation on paper but the collection of artists “all really wanted to play the festival this year,” which has always been an aspect of the festival which often goes unnoticed, according to Roberts. When an artist is eager to perform, and engages with their audience, the results are rarely better.
“That’s why people like it. It’s not fading away. It wasn’t that it was cool for a moment, it has background. It has history. We would love to get some bigger headliners — we’ve come close, and sometimes get them, when the right things align — but we’re blessed. We can provide a good line-up that is in the spirit of Jamaican-rooted music.”
