{"id":25565,"date":"2024-07-03T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T16:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25565"},"modified":"2024-06-28T10:54:44","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T17:54:44","slug":"listen-and-learn-ska-fest-celebrates-25-years-with-another-successful-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/07\/03\/listen-and-learn-ska-fest-celebrates-25-years-with-another-successful-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen and Learn<\/em>: Ska Fest celebrates 25 years with another successful event"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 25th anniversary of the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival took place from Wednesday, June 19 to Sunday, June 23, with the main stage at Ship Point. The lineup consisted of a mix of over 40 local, Canadian, and international bands.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exhausting going to shows from 4 pm to 10 pm followed by evening shows until 1 am but full festival attendees found themselves torn between sleep and bands they couldn\u2019t miss, such as The Slackers and The Suicide Machines on Friday night and The Planet Smashers and Less Than Jake on Saturday night; both bands played at Victoria Curling Club. However, The Suicide Machines\u2019 punk\/ska sound energized a tired crowd into a mosh pit.<\/p>\n

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Ska Fest artistic director Dane Roberts (left) and MC Kady Savard on stage during this year\u2019s festivities (photo by AJ Aiken\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To ensure Ska Fest is accessible to all people organizers offered three free all-ages shows at Ship Point on Wednesday, June 19, Thursday, June 20, and Sunday, June 21. Wednesday, June 19 saw the return of Ska Fest favourite The Capital Collective, a mix of musicians from various local bands, who feature a slightly different lineup of singers and musicians for each song. Six-time JUNO Award nominee\u2014originally from Jamaica, now living in Toronto\u2014Ammoye got the crowd pumped for headliner Antidoping from Mexico City, Mexico, with her bright-coloured outfit, dancing, and Jamaican-rooted reggae songs with themes of love and anti-war.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s show brought three amazing Victoria bands. Baby Boy & the Earthly Delights kicked off the show with their upbeat, island sound and special guests for a couple songs. The Dang Package, more of a rock band, filled in when Ska Fest artistic director Dane Roberts needed a band last-minute due to an unexpected scheduling issue; their willingness to play on short notice is testament to the love the music community has for Roberts. The Kiltlifters, a fan favourite, did not disappoint with their lively horn section, something that ska is known for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Headlining Thursday was Skampida, from Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, a high-energy band bringing music infused with a ska, reggae, punk, and Latin flare. Their saxophone player danced around the stage while playing, and their guitar player went back and forth between crowd engagement and being lost in their sound. The passion the band has for music was palpable.<\/p>\n

The final Ska Fest show on Sunday featured Kyle Smith\u2019s inaugural Canadian show. Several fans showed their excitement for Smith\u2019s Californian ska by buying his T-shirts before he took the stage. Coming onto the stage to the sounds of Beastie Boys, the crowd started jumping and dancing and didn\u2019t stop for the entire set.<\/p>\n

Chris Murray, who played the very first Ska Fest, returned to play with The New Victorians, a band Murray plays with when he comes to town. Having previously recorded with Vic Ruggiero from The Slackers, Murray brought Ruggiero on stage for a few songs. The solid rocksteady beat and tight horn section got everyone dancing, including the worn-out attendees who went to all nine Ska Fest shows.<\/p>\n

Roberts started Ska Fest in memory of his friend Matt Bishop who hosted Skankster\u2019s Paradise <\/i>on CFUV at UVic before passing away. This year, Ska Fest honoured longtime attendee Zakk Grant from Saskatoon, who missed Ska Fest due to being in a horrific fire. MC Kady Savard made a video of the crowd saying \u201cWe love you Zakk\u201d to send him in the hospital.<\/p>\n

Many of the bands this year thanked Roberts and the organizers, crew, and volunteers that make the event an incredible event every year. To close out Ska Fest, Savard brought the crew on stage for everyone to see the behind-the-scenes faces and thanked the crowd by including them in their annual crew photo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 25th anniversary of the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival took place from Wednesday, June 19 to Sunday, June 23, with the main stage at Ship Point. The lineup consisted of a mix of over 40 local, Canadian, and international bands. It\u2019s exhausting going to shows from 4 pm to 10 pm followed by evening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-july-3-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25567,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565\/revisions\/25567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}