I arrived at Raggamugffin about halfway through Katchafire’s set. Being a first-time attendee of the festival, I checked out the stalls and shops then ventured into the crowd for Sean Kingston’s set. I’m still not quite sure how or why but I enjoyed his set even though I don’t really enjoy his ‘hit’ songs which he played. DJ Nasty (Sean Kingston’s official DJ apparently) did a good job and hyped the crowd on the mic.
I was really impressed with Julian Marley and went as close as I could to the stage, right up to the front and side. A few people commented that his sound was bad but I didn’t personally notice anything. Unfortunately I missed a lot of Steel Pulse’s set, but from what I did see I was impressed and honoured to see one of the worlds’ most influential reggae bands.
Sly & Robbie took the pace down a bit but they were super tight as you would expect. By the time Lauryn Hill got to the stage energy-wise the crowd really needed to be picked up and that’s exactly what she did. She put on a brilliant performance clearing showing that she is a veteran. My favorite tune was Lost Ones and it was wicked to see a tight band perform a good one-drop session that had the crowd jumping around. It was such a pity that she only played for thirty minutes!
What to say about Shaggy – the first half of his performance I really enjoyed but I feel in the second half he got on his ‘mista lover lover’ tip a bit much for me (and some of my female friend were disgusted with some of the things he was saying). But as an entertainer he certainly brought his A-game.
I really enjoyed the Raggamuffin festival. Improvements for next time would be having DJ’s and MC’s playing between band sets and not having to buy Raggamuffin money to buy drinks (because I only had $10 left over after the festival). But it was an awesome day, the people were irie, the bands were tight, the sun shined, and it was great to hear that Raggamuffin gave $$8300 for the Haiti relief fund, showing true reggae spirit and that Raggamuffin is not just a commercial affair.
Bless up everyone involved and see you next year!
Hawk I
