{"id":44212,"date":"2021-08-13T12:45:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T16:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=44212"},"modified":"2021-08-16T13:58:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T17:58:53","slug":"playing-seattle-first-annual-international-reggae-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/playing-seattle-first-annual-international-reggae-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Hosts Its First-Ever International Reggae Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Seattle-based reggae artists Black Puma and Clinton Fearon. Photo courtesy of Black Puma.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This Saturday, August 14th, The Canal in Ballard hosts the First Annual Seattle International Reggae Festival<\/a>. Founder and promoter Jeremiah Blake, known in the music world as Andrew Hype, promises a fun, family-friendly experience of reggae music, art and culture and, if all goes well, hopes to make it an annual tradition. “It’s like the new birth of a new baby. We going to watch it grow, you know?” says Blake. “Just expect great food, great music, great artwork.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosting this festival shows just how far Seattle’s reggae scene has come. When Blake first moved to Seattle in 2001, there were hardly any Jamaicans in the area, except for a few pioneering Pacific northwest reggae artists like Clinton Fearon, who helped establish a local scene. But in the last twenty years, the number of Jamaican immigrants in Seattle has grown steadily<\/a>, and as a result, Afro-Caribbean musical styles like reggae have become more prevalent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n