Reggae legends throng Nairobi
Nairobi has played host to some of the most iconic and memorable reggae concerts with various award winning and legendary artists gracing the Kenyan capital in turns.
Here are some of the sampled events
Reggae Bound Summerfest 2002
Joseph Hill led the Mighty Culture Band in a concert held at the Impala Grounds in 2017. Crowds filled up the venue in their thousands, waving reggae colored flags, jumping up and down to the bands tunes most notably international herb, slice of mount Zion, riverside, Addis Ababa among others.
Sawa Sawa Reggae Festival 2007
Reggae fans thronged Kasarani Stadium for this concert headlined by the legendary Burning Spear, with an estimated 70,000 fans thronging the venue for endless music as the show was a free concert. Burning Spear played his most iconic tunes like mi gi dem, slavery days, identity, columbus among others.
Sawa Sawa Reggae Festival 2010
Don Carlos was among the popular reggea artists who graced the Sawasawa festival at the Kasarani stadium. The concert brought together over 100,000 fans filling up the grounds to the extent the security was totally overwhelmed. Don Carlos played his best known tracks like passing glance, guess who’s coming to dinner, spread out, sensimelia among others.
In 2017 he was back in town for the Peace Concert held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC).
Wailing Souls 2016
The legendary dou of Winston “Pipe” Matthews and Lloyd “Bread” McDonald made their inaugural Kenya performance in November 2016 at a concert at the KICC grounds. The dou did not disappoint with a performance of hit after hit on stage for over four hours long for their much needed Kenyan fans. Songs such as picky picky head, they don’t know jah, hard living plus their best track which left the crowd chanting down the tunes word for word “shark attack”.
Jamhuri Reggae Festival 2018
KICC Grounds was soon turning to be the ultimate venue for reggae concerts as the Jamhuri Festival brought together Freddie Mcgregor who shared the stage with Culture featuring Kenyatta Hill. It rained heavily that night but that did not stop the thousands of reggae fans who turned up for the show.
Buju Banton World Tour 2020
The NRG Wave concert brought Reggae King Buju Banton in a concert dubbed Long Walk to Freedom at the KICC Grounds. His performance was much awaited upon by his reggae fans since his release from a US prison in 2018, with a thrilling show of over 3 hours he proved he is still the reggae he has always been.
Over the years a number of reggae and dancehall artists have performed from the likes of: Morgan Heritage, Richie Spice, Everton Blender Queen Ifrica, Capleton, Antony B, Romain Virgo, Chris Martin, Tarrus Riley, Chronixx, Jah Cure, Sean Paul, Konshens, Charly Black, Cecile, Alaine.