Reggae Sunsplash
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Reggae Sunsplash is a reggae music festival that started in the 1970s in the northern part of Jamaica. In the 1980s and 1990s it became a touring festival which played at venues throughout the United States.
Because it is a very popular festival, it is very difficult to find hotel rooms, so a tradition developed of camping out on beaches. Sunsplash folded after the 1999 festival and the death of one of its founders, Tony Johnson, but was re-established by the Johnson family in 2006. Performers include seminal Jamaican reggae icons Third World, Culture, Steel Pulse, Toots and the Maytals, Freddie McGregor, Morgan Heritage, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Beres Hammond, Diana King, Maxi Priest, Wyclef Jean, UB40, Latin reggae and Reggaeton star Mey Vidal, and Canadian Dylan Murray.
The Reggae Sunsplash festival was the brainchild of four Jamaicans, Tony Johnson, Don Green, Ronnie Burke and John Wakeling. The four founding directors created a company called Synergy Productions which was responsible for promoting and producing the Reggae Sunsplash festival. The first Reggae Sunsplash festival was staged at Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica WI in June 1978 and began at dusk and continued until dawn for 7 days. It was billed as the "biggest Reggae festival in the history of the world". The festival introduced the concept of music and travel as a boost to tourism in Jamaica WI. Prior to the staging of Reggae Sunsplash, the hotels in Jamaica were traditionally closed during the summer period. The four founding partners staged the festival each year for a number of years and successfully created an annual summer tourist season in Jamaica. The success of Reggae Sunsplash led to a wave of annual music festivals in Jamaica and the Caribbean islands. In 1984 the Reggae Sunsplash festival was staged at the Crystal Palace football grounds in London, UK. In 1985 the Reggae Sunsplash World tour was launched in the USA and Japan and subsequent years saw the Reggae Sunsplash festival touring extensively throughout North America, Europe, South America and the Far East. Two of the founding directors, John Wakeling and Tony Johnson died and with the passing of Tony Johnson a number of individuals have tried to claim the rights to the festival unsuccessfully and all have failed to recapture the spirit of the legendary Reggae Sunsplash. Don Green and Ronnie Burke are the two remaining Reggae Sunsplash founders alive.
