Reggae music is healing

Starting this summer, the Montenegrin festival scene will be richer for another event, and it is Roots Revival, a reggae festival that will be held from August 6 to 8 in cooperation with Herceg Fest at the Forte Mare fortress.

The festival, which was created as a celebration of two decades of Radio Reggaeneracija, was announced by the organizers as a three-day musical and cultural event, during which Meta and The Cornerstones will perform in Herceg Novi. Hornsman Coyote, DJ Dadaman, DJ Mizizi (August 6), Del Arno Band, White Squall Soundsystem, DJ Earl Gateshead, DJ Geto Rudi (August 7), Aza lineage, Selector Grandpa, Saint Rock Soundsystem and DJ Ruffneck Smile (August 8), and two documentaries "Bite of Paradise" and "Jamais Seoul" will be shown.

As the spokesperson of the festival told in an interview with "Vijesti", Mirsad Brkić, who is also the editor of Radio Reggaeneracija, there is already great interest in this event in the region.

"There is already a high level of audience interest, mostly from the region, and we expect the fortress' capacity of 500 seats to be filled for all three days. "This kind of event will bring a new dimension to the city that it didn't have until now, and an interesting audience that mostly had to go to Slovenia (OverJam) or Croatia (Seasplash) for similar events," says Brkić.

"The festival gathers reggae performers from all over Europe, the Caribbean, America and Africa (Senegal, America, Jamaica, France, England, Serbia, Germany, Macedonia and Montenegro) who are followed by a total of 300 thousand followers on social networks", he announces and adds that the occasion it's not just the two decades of Radio Reggaeneracija's existence.

"On the sixth of August, the world celebrates Jamaica's Independence Day, in whose honor reggae festivals and celebrations are organized. This year, Herceg Novi will also have a representative from Jamaica, a rising star who collaborates with the biggest names in the reggae scene, Azu Lineage. In addition to the music program, the festival will include educational segments about different cultures in order to understand the differences between peoples and the values ​​that these cultures carry. Those segments include speakers, presentations, and visual or video content," he points out.

To meet the festival in Herceg Novi, two promo events will be organized in Belgrade and Zagreb on July 23 and 30, respectively, where the festival's offer will be presented along with the promotion of sponsors and supporters of the festival, explained the editor of Radio Reggaeneracija.

"In Belgrade, in cooperation with Reggae Serbia, the program consists of White Squall Sound System and representatives of Radio Reggaeneracija, while in Zagreb there is cooperation with the organization Reggae Hrvatska", added the interlocutor of "Vijesti".

When asked how the idea for starting this festival first came about, Brkić says that it has been around for a long time.

"When you've been in reggae music for 15 years, the idea of ​​a reggae festival is ubiquitous. And as we mature, we also begin to see ways to realize such an important project", he believes, and then reveals that the team behind this festival consists of Danko Draskovic known as Dadaman, Dejan Vidic famous like Vidar, and he.

"We had a desire ten years ago to organize a festival to celebrate ten years of the organization's existence. But then we didn't have the resources to carry out such a project, and I moved around France more than Montenegro. That's why this year, when we celebrate twenty years of existence, we had no excuse and simply decided to make something. "Something big and something to be proud of when it comes to the program and repertoire," Brkić stressed.

One of the initiators of the festival and the editor of Radio Reggaeneracija also reveals how the selection of performers went, as well as the negotiations with them.

"The line up is quite rich. Anyone who listens to reggae music when they hear Meta and The Cornerstones or Aza Lineage will say - wow. Not to mention that there is also a legend of the local reggae scene Jovan Matić and the Del Arno Band. And then on top of all that, one Earl Gateshead, a phenomenal DJ of the legendary publishing house Trojan Records and Trojan Soundsystem", he enumerates.

"The selection of performers was such that you find absolute musical quality that is still in some kind of career expansion. I personally believe that Meta Dia and Aza Lineage will be the stars of reggae music that the whole music world will be talking about. And they are already very famous. Even the most layman will recognize an excellent musician. "Many people are already writing to us and asking when Meta and The Cornerstones are and how much the tickets are and how to book," he claims.

"But what I am most guided by in reggae music, from the musicians themselves, to the people who do our sound systems, are some kind of human qualities. And Meta, and Aza, and Del Arno, and especially Earl Gateshead, immediately said that they wanted to help our initiative and went out of their way to meet us as much as they could. For me, money does not play such a role here, as much as the human approach. A lot of musicians and managers have that business attitude, but we at Roots Revival are not businessmen but sincere fans of reggae music. It is very important to us how much soul and what kind of attitude the one who represents the musicians has", says the spokesperson of the festival and admits that this is a pilot project.

"For a program like this, you would certainly pay 20-30 euros per day, for example, on OverJam (Slovenia) or Seasplash (Croatia). The ticket prices will be symbolic and we believe that the audience will recognize this project as a true story, and that next year we will increase the capacity several times and change the location", he answers the question of how ambitious they are and whether they hope that the festival will last.

"Our desire is to fill the capacity and create a great atmosphere. We do all this out of love and we believe that where there is love, there are results. Reggae music is wonderful, healing and much needed by a society that has distanced itself so socially after all these pandemics and wars", believes Brkić and explains where interested parties can buy tickets and at what price:

"Tickets, for now, can be bought at the very entrance of the fortress. We are still thinking about potential online sales. Tickets will have a symbolic price of ten euros in advance for the day, or 25 euros for all three days. On the day of the festival, tickets per evening will be 15 euros," he explains.

They spread love and tolerance

Although he is known to a wider audience as a rapper from the group Who See, reggae music fans Dejan Dedović Dedduh known as the reggae selector and editor of the Lionstyle show, and now also as the spokesperson for the Roots Revival festival, so he recalls for "Vijesti" how his story began with reggae music, but also with the new Herzegovinian festival.

"Who See has already lowered the anchor... The audience knows me as a rapper, but also as a reggae fan. The reggae direction has been running through Who See all these years, and this will be the case with our new, fifth album as well. Since the nineties of the last century when I heard about Bob Marley, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear... love happened. It sounds corny, but it's true, naked and pure love. Since I like to collect music, buy and get, so much has accumulated. That's why I dared to create a mix show that I called Lionstyle, which is broadcast every Tuesday on Zagreb radio 808", said Dedduh.

When asked how necessary it was to start this project in Montenegro, Dedduh, who is also one of the performers at the Roots Revival, says that "not a very large audience in Montenegro, but certainly more numerous during the summer season, truly wants one of their own festival".

"Reggae music spreads love and tolerance, propagates peace and freedom, so there must be a need for such values. Roots revival is a product from the heart of Comrade Mirsad and is not a commercial festival like many others, but as you stated in the question of 'need'", he believes.

Dedduh also reveals how much he influenced the selection of performers for the first edition of this festival in the conversation with the festival organizers.

"Comrade Brkić wanted to consult with me about the contractor and I expressed some of my wishes, but nothing worked. Like all pioneering attempts, this one doesn't have the budget to match. Therefore, one is the wishes, the other is the possibility, and the third is the courage or craziness of the organizers. Well, that courage surfaced, it was recognized, and the festival is here for us with enviable names from the domestic and international scene", said Dedduh.