Reggae stars ‘Jam’ at FIU

“Reggae Jam — Meeting of the Legends” is doing its best to live up to that billing.

The second staging of the music festival organized by the groundbreaking band Inner Circle will put the spotlight on Amara La Negra (“Love & Hip Hop: Miami”), the United Kingdom’s Steel Pulse band, Bob Marley’s grandson Skip Marley as well as Jahfe, Redlyte, Spred The Dub and the Resolvers.

“We are in a campaign to preserve real reggae in its original form,” says Ian Lewis, a founding member of Inner Circle with his brother Roger. “Because we grew up with people playing instruments. ‘Reggae Jam’ is real people playing real music. That is what we want to preserve. It’s a more organic vibe. The feel and vibe of reggae music, it’s something given to us.”

■ “Reggae Jam” takes place Sunday, Dec.

29 from 10 a.m.-11 p.m. at the Ronald L. Book Athletic Stadium on the north campus of Florida International University,

2555 NE 151st St., North Miami.

■ The concert is from 3-11 p.m.

■ Before the concert event there will be a “Reggae Breakfast Party” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with Caribbean cuisine and music by Supa Dups (of Black Chiney) and Jazzy T (of Renaissance Disco).

■ There will also be “Intellectual Popup” panel discussions about “Musically Speaking: The Past, Present and Future,” “CBD vs THC” and “Health, Wellness and Food” from 1-3 p.m.

■ Tickets include entry to all three events. General admission is $40 and VIP tickets are $60. Kids under the age of 12 are admitted for free. To order, go to Eventbrite.com.

“It’s a feeling, you know,” Lewis adds. “We don’t go somewhere that’s stuffy. We’re going to have vegetarian food ... we’re going to have some bounce houses. We have ... art for reggae. It’s like a bunch of illustrations.”

Inner Circle is best known for the chart-topper “Sweat (A La La La La Long)” and the mega hit “Bad Boys,” which is a theme song for both the documentary reality TV show “Cops” and the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence film franchise “Bad Boys” (1995), “Bad Boys II”

(2003) and the upcoming “Bad Boys For Life” (2020).

Thanks to those crossover hits, the band spends much of the year touring internationally.

“We played in some places where I didn’t even know people would know us,” Lewis says. “Like all through Europe and Mesopotamia, up in the mountains you know, there are sheep on the road — the Faroe Islands. We played this little fishing town with a harbor. I think there were like 3,000 people in all living there and

2,700 came to see us.”

And that’s another reason why Inner Circle created “Reggae Jam,” to give South Florida fans a chance to see the band perform with their contemporaries and the new wave of reggae/ska/fusion/ dance hall/rock steady/dub performers. The inaugural “Reggae Jam” fell on New Year’s Day and was staged in Wynwood Yard. About 1,700 people came to see Mykal Rose, Jo Mersa Marley, LunchMoney Lewis, Daniel Skye, the Ries Brothers and Papayo.

“We’ve been touring, especially in the last three or four years, a lot,” Lewis says before quickly adding, “But we are pulling the horse back a little. My brother messed up his knee and, you know, the surgery, so we’re going to take it a little easy.”

The Grammy Award-winning Inner Circle band is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, which was commemorated with the Lewis brothers in October being awarded the Order of Distinction at the National Honours and Awards in Jamaica.

“We cut some cake and had some fun,” Lewis recalls “We’re simple people. But it was good to get recognized for our work.”