No doubt, this year the major happenings of the summerjam have been the concerts.
The line-up was outstanding.
It is nearly impossible to summarize the concerts because of these many top acts.
Due to the heavy line-up it was very
crowded everywhere, not only in front of the stage. I don't think that there have been this
many people at any summerjam
before. The official infos about the number of people varies between
22.000 and 25.000, but we think there have been more!
Well, more people usually cause more enthusiasm! And this is very true for the mainstage,
the posse was wicked.
Loads of people in front of the mainstage and it was cheerful. But in the tents, especially
in the early sessions, there were only a few people around. Many people tell, this was
a great Summerjam Festival but something was missing.
The final kick didn't happen in 2000. But why?
Friday's mainstage program was dominated by the sudden cancellation of Tony Rebel, what was really a bad thing. There wasn't any artist as replacement so there was much time left for the other bands. But besides Nigeria's incredible Femi Kuti none of the bands played for a longer time. Anyway, Femi was really surprising, his live performance is astonishing. He has so much power and the band is driving. Later the British Asian Dub Foundation brought a hard cut to the early program. Their show was truely great, incredible Dub sound from the UK.
Main part of the tent programs on Friday was in the green tent: the great
show by "the south connection", a mixture of
Fred and Barney Sound from Munich, Stuttgart's Lucky Punch and Massive Joey.
Later the wicked Blood and Fire Crew with the great DJ's Trinity, Dillinger and
the Master U Brown rules the place! Great to see these legends back in Germany
and thanks to the cool Blood and Fire posse for this opportunity!
"Longtime" top act (referring to the duration of performance at summerjam) was legendary Jah Shaka! His set was deeply impressing. Respect. Not this modern-time plug-in-and-play-stuff, oh no! This was real good solid work! He spent 2 days playing music on his (it was only one!) turntable placed in the height above his eyes. He brought his own equipment including the selfmade soundsystem. Impressive technology! Every time when I passed this tent, it was crowded. He played on Friday and Saturday starting in the early evenings and finishing late at night!
The weather on Saturday morning was incredibly bad. It rained for hours and temperatures dropped. But the crowd was massive during the perfomance of Germany's best known DJ Mr. Gentleman supported by Killing Riddim and the wicked Daddy Rings. I have never seen such a huge number of people at 14:00h at Summerjam. And it did rain like cats and dogs.
"Shorttime" top act of Summerjam 2000 was Everton Blender.
Although he got only half an hour, he delighted
the crowd with a selection of his hits, from the
Ghetto People song until Lift up your head... he is so good!
(If anybody would ask me whom I mostly would like to see again
next year, I would choose Everton Blender!)
I don't know who was the most beloved artist. It seemed like the crowd loved everyone. Great to see was the grandfather Daddy U-Roy with his big band from Jamaica and good to hear again was the wonderful voice of Michael Rose recollecting Black Uhuru-songs (backed by the Nobotics Band). Letīs not talk about Ziggy Marley again, this is truely a good artist but he couldnīt really get the posse. His music is moving on and on to a goal that is far away from Reggae music.
Well, but seeing Buju Banton and Beenie Man, one after the other, this was killing!!!
Buju was coming with charming Wayne Wonder as he did 6 years ago. Beenie Man came with
Silvercat, Snagga Puss and Little Kirk! This compilation is too much for the nerves, isnīt it?
Buju presented his humorous show, including everlasting hits like Champion and Murderer.
Find words for Beenie Man's performance. It was probably the most exciting show in the history of
summerjam. The crowd
loved Beenie Man and he loved the crowd. Most of the people saw him performing for the first time,
but nevertheless - they knew the lyrics.
After the Beenie Man show, after watching the enthusiastic thousands of people jumping, dancing,
lighters inna the air, it became evident for everyone that in Germany the dancehall-thing is
not the passion of just a few people!! Itīs the biggest movement in Reggae since ages.
Later at night the tent program was rough: One tent with the well-known David Rodigan, supported by Cologneīs Pow Pow soundsystem, in the other tent Jamaicaīs premier soundsystem Stone Love Sound. This was truely a saturday nights perfect program!
Sunday is usually the chill out day, the program started with the funny Jin Jin band from Krefeld. After that in the hot high noon sun Aswad from the UK brought us a smoothy poppy but very nice relaxing sound. This is nothing for my homesound but nice for the hot time. Great to see were the roots-artists like the great Horace Andy (btw.: the only musician on the mainstage bringing TWO women as musicians!), the legendary Abyssinians (they were the oldest musicians on the yard), and last but not least Israel Vibration. Finally Africaīs Superstar Alpha Blondy brought nice sound but an awful weather. A big thunderstorm finished the festival for the posse....
Beyond the concerts: This year, compared to former times, there was not so much to do besides the concerts and sessions in the tents. For example, there have been less stalls of traders (I don't know why). Good to shop were records. I didn't count the stalls where records have been offered!
What changed the "typical" atmosphere of summerjam a bit, was the complete absence of "pirate" soundsystems off the island. There was not even on the island open air-sound until dawn. PowPow is great in a big tent, but I liked them more at the Airfield in Mönchengladbach where they came along on the truck... Probably we have to get used to the curfew and the restrictions for big festivals like this. This year, it was not too bad to do without all the bashments, because the concerts compensated a lot. But it was different. Me, I missed it.
More points: the festival seemed to be better organized. On one side it is a plus to get the tickets changed faster. On the other side, isn't it strange to chase ganja-dealers at a reggae-festival? It's like a joke! or even to check the bags of the festival visitors for ganja, unbelievable. I hope this will keep an exception and will not happen again next year.
Big up everyone and keep the good vibes of the summerjam for a while!!!
Anne and Peter
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| Y E L L O W stage |
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| G R E E N stage |
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| W H I T E stage |
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| M A I N stage |
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| Y E L L O W stage |
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| G R E E N stage |
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| W H I T E stage |
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| M A I N stage |
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| I N T R O stage |
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| G R E E N stage |
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| W H I T E stage |
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Parallel programm during the whole festival:
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