Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival / Society

In addition to our Garden City Grooves live stream this weekend, the day before that our good friends The Black Seeds have announced that they are releasing a single off their new album to be released in 2021! They said today, "This Friday we begin a new chapter of The Black Seeds with the release of the first single off our new album coming your way later next year. Feels good to be releasing some new music after a lengthy break, and wherever you are we hope it brings you some good vibes in these crazy times. Check it out, this Friday, TBS" Long live The Black Seeds! We thought it was a nice time to post some photos of the memories we've had with the band since their last tour in Canada for the Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival.

Spend your weekend discovering fresh new music right from our garden! Celebrate groove music in all its flavours when Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival / Society present Garden City Grooves VII Saturday, November 28th - Sunday, November 29th! This year we will bringing you Garden City Grooves through live streamed and remote performances! Day 1 (Sat. Nov 28th 4:20pm - 9pm) we'll be featuring Zimbabwean Marimba, Afro-Cuban & West African rhythms, hip hop and soul with Kutapira,... The Soul Motivators, LOS DUENDES and 1-UP FUNK Day 2 (Sun. Nov 29th 5pm - 8:30pm) The final evening of Garden City Grooves will bring us some New Orleans style brass, funk, blues, soul, hip hop and Latin fusion with Jonnie 5 Brass Band ft. Kia Kadiri, Nostic & Nicki and Sexweather Watch this broadcast on the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival / Society FB or youtube page. Or tune in by going to skafest.ca at the times advertised!

Let groove music flow and the good times continue with Garden City Grooves VII! Saturday, November 28th and Sunday, November 29th, Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival / Society is proud to present Jonnie 5 Brass Band ft. Kia Kadiri, Kutapira, The Soul Motivators, Nostic & Nicki, LOS DUENDES, Sexweather & 1-UP FUNK This year we will be celebrating groove music in all its flavours through live streamed performances from Studio Robazzo in Victoria. In addition to our live streamed ...performances we'll have some other special remote performances and pre-recorded programming to show you from our vaults that has never been released! Musically the first day of Garden City Grooves will feature a mixture of Zimbabwean Marimba, Afro-Cuban & West African rhythms, hip hop and soul! We will be featuring two groups from Vancouver (Kutapira and Los Duendes) plus 1up Funk from Victoria and a special remote recording from The Soul Motivators in Toronto. Live streamed performances from Kutapira, Los Duendes and 1up Funk will air from 4:20pm - 8pm. The Soul Motivators remote performance will air around 8pm - 9pm. Note all times are approximate and subject to change. The final evening of Garden City Grooves VII will bring us some New Orleans style brass, funk, blues, soul and hip hop. Best of all Sunday's line up are musicians that all originate from Victoria! The music will be both conscious and entertaining. Notably, this performance will be the first time that hip hop/soul/R&B legend Kia Kadiri collaborates with Jonnie 5 Brass Band. Garden City Grooves is free but we strongly encourage you to share this broadcast with everyone you know before, during and after it happens and subscribe to the Victoria Ska & Reggae Society youtube channel.

Enjoy a sneak peak of Jonnie 5 Brass Band ft. Kia Kadiri live from our Hidden Gem HQ. They'll be performing on Sun. Nov 29th at Studio Robazzo for Garden City Grooves Festival. Victoria Ska & Reggae Broadcast System will be live streaming their performance there. More announcements about Garden City Grooves Nov 28 - 29, 2020 will be announced shortly!

We can't wait to bring you our next live stream virtual presentation for Garden City Grooves on November 28th & 29th. Here's a sneak peak of Kutapira who will be featured on Sat. Nov 28th! This is a clip of when they played at FernFest in Victoria in 2018. Kutapira also played at Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival in 2015 with Mindil Beach, Sweetleaf, Downtown Mischief & DJ Anger. Tune in and see them Sat. Nov 28th from 4:20pm - 9pm. You can watch the telecast live here on this ...page or view it on skafest.ca https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GGqhlMj2aU See more

Lest we forget the 16,000 people from the Caribbean that voluntarily signed up to fight in World War I and World War II. In this BBC News article by Gemma Handy, Pagget Messiah of the Antigua and Barbuda Ex-Servicemen's Association says, "The history of the Caribbean's contribution is also the history of our social struggles for acceptance as part of the human race," Mr Messiah continues. "The war heralded a major step towards the freedoms we enjoy today, a slackening of colonial reins and our people's ascent into various administrative roles in their homeland." Read the full article here --> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46110120

Today we've added feature videos on the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival / Society youtube channel from our Live Stream from the Swamp by Mo Moshiri w/Grossbuster and Babyface Brass. They are individual videos that have been separated from the full live stream. We'll be adding more in the days and weeks to come. But for now we want to show you this one which we call "Ode to Orilla" which is an Orilla track Grossbuster (Nate) played just before the full set for Mo Moshiri. Rest in power Orrie! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QVaLI1c-X0

Here's some good news to start your day. So far in late trials the Pfizer vaccine is said to be 90% effective against coronavirus. The minimum threshold to use it is 50%. That said, although a lot is still in the air, this gives us hope that Victoria's 22nd Annual Ska & Reggae Festival can still happen in the summer of 2021. Today's announcement is a positive development in that direction. In the meantime keep doing what you can to keep yourself and your family and friends healthy. Chin up! We will get through this! https://www.ctvnews.ca//pm-says-canada-preparing-for-effec

Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival / Society is excited to bring you our 7th edition of Garden City Grooves celebrating groove music in all its flavours Saturday, November 28th and Sunday, November 29th. This year we will be presenting both live streamed and remote performances that you can enjoy from the comfort of your living room, rec room, basement, bathroom or kitchen! Day 1 (Sat. Nov 28th 4:20pm - 9pm) we'll be featuring Zimbabwean Marimba, Afro-Cuban & West African rhyth...ms, hip hop and soul with Kutapira, The Soul Motivators, LOS DUENDES and 1-UP FUNK Day 2 (Sun. Nov 29th 5pm - 8:30pm) The final evening of Garden City Grooves will bring us some New Orleans style brass, funk, blues, soul, hip hop and Latin fusion with Jonnie 5 Brass Band ft. Kia Kadiri, Nostic & Nicki and Sexweather Watch this broadcast on the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival / Society FB or youtube page. Or tune in by going to skafest.ca at the times advertised!

We just wanted to acknowledge that Alex Trebek of the popular game show Jeopardy! died today. May he rest in peace. Also we've put a Jeopardy answer that was presented years ago. The contestant got it right. The correct question was "What is ska?" https://www.ctvnews.ca//people-loved-him-alex-trebek-dies-