Rebel Salute Festival @ Alpart Sports Ground, Manchester, Jamaica

Story and photos by Brittany Somerset

This year’s 15th annual Rebel Salute, a birthday celebration for promoter and artist Tony Rebel, did not disappoint. An estimated 10,000 Jamaicans from Kingston to Negril, as well as international tourists who were visiting Jamaica from New York, London and Japan attended the all night festival at Alpart Sports ground in St. Elizabeth, Manchester, Jamaica on Saturday night, January 12th.

Rebel Salute is generally a more “culture” roots reggae festival than Sting or Sumfest (although both of those festivals do usually include a few culture and roots reggae artists). Roots reggae performances included those from an older generation of artists like Leroy Gibbons, who performed, “This Magic Moment,” Errol Dunkley, Spanner Banner, Chalice, ex-Black Uhuru vocalist Junior Reid, George Nooks, and Luciano.

The backing band for most of the artists was Live Wyah, the same backing band that performs at Sumfest. The emotional performances by Queen Ifrika and I-Wayne were spiritually elevating. Culture dancehall performances by blind reggae artist Patriot, Collie Buddz, Busy Signal and Capleton got the field jumping.

Spanner Banner was the first Bonner brother to enjoy critically acclaimed mainstream success in a musical family that includes brothers Richie Spice, Snatcha Lion (formerly Knight Snatcher) Pliers (half of the duo Chaka Demus and Pliers), and Jah Mikes. Spanner Banner performed his well-known hits, “One Love,” “Bright Fire,” “You Got to Be,” and his signature tune, “Life Goes On,” which closed the set. He was one of the most well received artists of the night and left the stage with his audience cheering and waving flags.

Newer female culture reggae artist Queen Ifrika, decked out in a bright yellow, two piece African-style outfit and coordinating red head wrap, performed “Daddy (Don’t Touch Me There),” a heart-wrenching ballad dealing with the sensitive topic of child molestation, and “Randy.”

Etana, who wasn’t as popular at last year’s Rebel Salute, seemed to have dramatically improved her position in the crowd’s hearts this year. Fans sang along with “Wrong Address” and “Roots.” Etana performed with three pretty back up dancers, called Dance Xpressions.

Collie Buddz introduced himself as “Mr. Harper” onstage and, surprisingly, performed “Mamacita” where “Blind to You” seemed the more obvious choice for this particular crowd. Although considering his set was cut from 15 to only 10 minutes, he clearly had to drop a song or two. He also performed “Come Around” and called for the lights to go out and for everyone who smoked ganja to light up their lighters.

The audience, who may have been getting tired, gave a cool reception to internationally acclaimed Ini Kamoze and lesser-known duo Ernie Smith and Pluto Shervington who seemed to have an odd position in the line-up.

Chalice, a band popular in the ‘80s, was given a prime time-slot but bored the crowd a bit and at one point resorted to doing a Shaggy impersonation. As always with these types of festivals, the line-up was overcrowded and, even with short set changes, the night inevitably dragged on in spots. Some people complained that a group like Chalice played for an exceedingly long 45 minutes, when other visiting artists like Collie Buddz had their sets cut due to time constraints.

I-Wayne performed his unlikely crossover hit from 2005, ”Can’t Satisfy Her” and was definitely appreciated by the Rebel Salute masses. I-Wayne’s set was cut short when the stage manager yelled to him from the sidelines to come off the stage.

Lutan Fyah came out with a Southern Baptist preacher’s passionate deliverance of typically Jamaican homophobic messages and oral sex denouncements. Not typically known for such lyrics, it’s possible he took the opportunity to elicit a “forward” from the audience. He then slowed down and matched the leisurely pace that the concert usually takes with “Save the Juvenile” and “Rasta still Deh Bout.”

Just as night broke, and dawn rose, Capleton, decked out in a white Arabian Nights themed get-up similar to what Ninjaman wore at Carifest, shattered the solitude with his performances of “Turn It Up” and “Small World,” which were accompanied by fireworks that soared and glittered over the festival.

He was followed by equally energetic dancehall artist, Busy Signal. Busy Signal’s recent slew of conscious, in-your-face reality tunes that resonate with a Rastafarian audience made him an appropriate dancehall artist for the line-up, although, Sizzla or Buju were the more obvious choices to represent this genre.

Busy gave the typically high-spirited performance expected of a dancehall artist and the crowd loved him but, given what’s traditionally a relaxed environment at Rebel Salute, the same performance possibly would have been better received during Dancehall night at Sumfest.

Rebel Salute patrons are generally more receptive to artists like I-Wayne, who condemn violence and meat eating, and spread a Rastafarian message of positivity, consciousness and love. Sugar Minott performed in a similarly relaxed style, which personifies the Rebel Salute event. Richie Stephens did a cameo with Tony Rebel.

Tarrus Riley was appreciated and gave a fine performance on Sunday morning, as if he had peacefully slept through the night and woke up early to sing for a revival. Some people who stayed overnight without sleep were a little cranky as they impatiently waited for the infamous Jah Cure to take the stage.

Jah Cure didn’t take the stage until 8am. Generally the more exciting artists are saved for last, in order to keep people from tiring out and leaving at 4 or 5am. Luciano, who actually performed last, got the short end of the stick and performed to a dwindling crowd, since almost everyone who had stayed until the next morning left after Jah Cure ‘s performance in order to eschew departure traffic, which was actually minimal this year.

It is well known that you can’t make it through a Jamaican festival unless you take a break to sleep in your car, in your lawn chair, or lying on a tarp or a “reggae bed” (i.e. a piece of clean cardboard that you place on the ground in order to take a brief nap through the sets of your least favorite artists, so you can carry on until 10 am the next day). 12-15 hours is the normal running time of an all night festival.

The majority of food stalls served only naturally prepared “Ital” vegetarian food, with no meat or alcohol present inside the venue, in keeping with the vibration of the event. This is a conscious message in a country whose national dish is jerk chicken with Red Stripe beer.