REGGAE SUNSPLASH
Reggae Sunsplash returns in 2020 after a 14 year absence on the stageshow scene and that’s big news.
The first staging took place in 1978 in Montego Bay and it was a six nights in a row showcase with reggae’s top acts such as Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff, Jacob Miller and Third World. Dennis Brown used to close the festival in the early morning about every year. Bob Marley’s final performance in Jamaica was at Sunsplash in 1979.
One of Jamaica’s largest private security companies has bought the rights to the event. It will be produced by Rober Stewart, who worked on the original Sunsplash and has recently produced the Long Walk To Freedom tour of Buju Banton.
WHEN
November 2020
WHERE
Grizzly’s Plantation Cove, Priory, St. Ann. That’s the same venue as Rebel Salute.
LINE-UP
No line-up has been announced yet, but what has been communicated is that a first night will feature artists that came on the scene before 2000. Night two will then have artists on staged that bussed after 2000, and the finale will be a sound system party at Puerto Seco Beach in Discovery Bay, not too far from Priory.
MORE
Read all about the return of Reggae Sunsplash in this Billboard article.
“The JTB was not impressed. They laughingly asked us, ‘Do you seriously think tourists would pay to come to a reggae event?’ They didn’t want reggae, Rastas and ganja to represent Jamaica. But when we showed them a recent issue of Melody Maker magazine with Bob Marley on the cover, their laughter stopped.”
