SKAFEST Booker T. Jones leads lineup
Booker T. Jones joins an impressive lineup of ska and reggae bands including The Mad Caddies, Keith and Tex, Mike Love, The Black Seeds, Tarrus Riley and The Skints for the 18th Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival beginning Wednesday, June 14.
IN CONCERT
What: 18th Annual Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival Where: Various venues, including Ship Point, Distrikt, Lucky Bar and Sugar When: June 14 to 18 Tickets: Available at Lyle’s Place, Tourism Information Centre, Jupiter, Fascinating Rhythm (Nanaimo), Area 51 (Duncan) and ticketweb.ca Information: victoriaskafest.ca
With artists on tap this year from Hawaii, England, New Zealand and Colombia — among several other countries — the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival is proving to be one of the city’s most consistently colourful events.
And Dane Roberts, the festival’s founder and artistic director, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We always like to make the program as dynamic as we can. We really like to have that international flavour, and think that is huge for us. It showcases the music in so many different ways and languages and styles. There’s a rich culture and education you can get from that.”
Roberts, who started the festival on a modest budget in 2000, has grown the event into a rarity of its kind in Canada. At present, it is one of the only festivals catering to ska music in Canada, and can be counted among the country’s best-known and bestproduced.
Ska music, a precursor to reggae, occupies a spot for off the musical landscape, in terms of mainstream appeal, but the role it has played in bringing big names such as Bob Marley to the public cannot be undervalued. As a result, ska fans remain some of the most passionate and involved.
“Even though trends come and go, if you have a real passionate grasp on the roots scene you’ll survive those hills and valleys. The festival hasn’t always glittered in comparison to others, but I feel it has always been consistent. We always try our utmost to bite off only as much as we can chew.”
This year’s 18th edition gets underway Wednesday, and will occupy several stages throughout downtown through Sunday, June 18. Booker T. Jones, The Mad Caddies, Keith and Tex, Mike Love, The Black Seeds, Tarrus Riley and The Skints are among the collection of reggae and ska artists booked to appear. The range of acts is considerable, and features music native to several countries not always associated with ska’s Jamaican origins.
Variety is the mandate of Roberts and his team. The festival made an effort to add more indigenous artists this year, including Quebec’s Shauit, who sings in Innu and French, and Yellowsky, a Cree reggae artist from Saskatoon, which could signal a new direction going forward. Anything is possible when it comes to the festival, Roberts said.
Producing an international roster is always difficult, but the process is nothing like it was in the early days. “Computers helped bridge the gap in terms of communications with bands outside of North America,” Roberts said.
The booking of Jones was a coup for Roberts and his crew. The soul music legend and former leader of Booker T. and the M.G.’s, who plays Ship Point in the Inner Harbour next Thursday, does not play ska or reggae festivals very often, if at all.
Nonetheless, his influence on musicians is incalculable, having played various instruments on a string of iconic hits from the 1960s — Green Onions, Soul Man, Try a Little Tenderness and Hold On, I’m Comin’ — that are considered among some of the best in history. Roberts said that when he told Jones multiple ska and reggae acts playing the festival this year were huge fans, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award winner was genuinely taken aback.
“I don’t think he imagined that before we pointed it out,” Roberts said with a laugh. “It is new territory for him. He definitely hasn’t played at any ska festivals before.”
Jones will also give a keynote address to an audience at Victoria High School on Thursday, along with a presentation by Jamaican rocksteady duo Keith & Tex and a performance by the Vic High R&B Band. The purpose of the event, which is free and open to the public, is to further the conversation about ska and give the public a greater understanding of the roots of Jamaican music.
It will also help lighten the load for Roberts, who says there are many misgivings where ska is concerned.
“That was the barrier all these years — getting people to know what ska is,” Roberts said. “It’s always going to be an ongoing challenge, but we’re making headway. It’s not easy — we’ve been doing the festival almost 20 years — and for as long as it lasts, we will be telling people what it is.”