Reggae Sumfest 2020, July 24^th – 25^th, was the first-ever over its 27 years to exclusively be targeted towards an online audience. What a show! What a night for reggae music as the 2^nd night of the festival, ‘Reggae night’, produced a made-for-TV event of the highest quality for reggae lovers.

The show duded ‘A Taste Of Sumfest 2020’ featured a cast of some of the best reggae artistes today. Starting with the great saxophonist Dean Fraser doing his magic on Bob Marley’s Redemption Song, Dean unique sound could be heard complementing the vocals throughout the show.

Gyptian, singing his mega hit ‘Hold You’, was up next and was followed by Tarrus Riley who used the occasion to perform some of his most recent songs including ‘Healing’, and his brand new release ‘Remember Me’.

 

Freddie McGregor, the veteran, showed his staying power in the industry with a sterling performance which invoked comments like:

“McGregor sound better than most of the artists and he’s twice their age lol.”

“Ok so when they’re going honor Freddy McGregor??this man is an icon for reggae music. Periodd.”

 

Other superb performances came from Maxi Priest, and Koffee, with Sizzla Kolonji ending the show with a sizzling performance which elicited the following online comments:

“Real artist..Living legend”

“Not only a commendable performance but the love this man has for his community and the work he puts in to show his love is truly amazing. He speaks with such eloquence and clarity, such a talented and intelligent man. True legend, much love ❤❤❤❤.”

 “Younger generation take notes. Freestyle on different rhythm, different songs on different rhythm. Stage performance the hold package.”

 As it turned out the absence of a live audience made the artistes perform to the camera and direct their energies towards the viewers at home. Also, as there was no one to beg or cajole to sing along, the artistes, for the most part, sang their songs as the original recordings; how refreshing! Another professional aspect of the show was time management. There was a short turn around time between acts and the show was about 2 hours of back to back first-class entertainment. This made reggae night of Reggae Sumfest 2020, in my opinion comparable with any of big music award shows. Let’s hope that the organizers consider implementing some aspect of this format in the future to make Reggae Sumfest more marketable to greater online and television viewership.

 

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