Sunglasses? Check! Flip flops? Check! Sun screen? Check! But with less than a month till Wilkswood Roots Reggae 2019, you’ll not be fully prepared until you’ve downloaded the festival app. With up-to-date details of stage times, last minute amendments, new additions and urgent announcements, the Wilkswood Roots Reggae App is your essential guide to the weekend’s fun. The App also has details of events in the Kid’s Zone, showing running order and times, so that mum and dad can make sure the littluns don’t miss out. Important info is available including location of security, water and fire points. There’s even the festival map in case you get lost!
The App is currently only available for Android devices and can be downloaded for free from the Google Store.
Spend some quality time with the kids at Wilkswood Roots Reggae 2019
There are still a limited number of day tickets available for Wilkswood Roots Reggae Festival 2019. Each day has a full programme with headline acts on the main stage, artists performing across four stages, the late night Shhhbeen, a dedicated Kid’s Field, Caribbean jerk barbecue, food stalls, bars serving draught ales and ciders, lots of craft stalls and activities, the Rum Shak making ice cold cocktails and tons more.
Your day ticket entitles you to full entry to the main arena from late morning right through to the small hours when the DJs finish in the Shhhbeen. If you don’t fancy the journey home, you can purchase day tickets with camping. Youths get a discount and under-3s are free.
Now, the only question is: which day? The line-up this year is our strongest yet so each day is packed with juicy goodness. Headliners on each day are:
Friday headliners: Jazzie B and Benjamin Zephaniah + the Revolutionary Minds
Saturday headliners: Congo Natty and Macka B
Sunday headliners: Johnny Osbourne + the Upper Cut Band and Manudigital
Tickets are selling steadily so, with just a month until Wilkswood Roots Reggae 2019, make sure you don’t miss out. Use the link below to bag your tickets.
Jazzie B, DJ, music producer, founding member of Soul II Soul, football coach, fashion designer and all round Funki Dred, makes his Purbeck debut at this year’s Wilkswood Roots Reggae Festival.
Although Jazzie B and Soul II Soul will always be connected, both spiritually and substantially, that has never been all Jazzie has been about. For years now, he has built a parallel career away from the collective, one that allows Jazzie to advance his own ideas and character. Among his more eclectic achievements as Jazzie B, he has been a regular on London radio since Kiss FM was a pirate – he is currently on Solar Radio, Sundays 2-4 pm and also does a variety of voice-overs for radio and television. He has had a spell running Motown in the UK, designed a sneaker for the Lacoste Legends range and presented James Brown with the Diesel U Music Lifetime Achievement award – an honour the late Mr Brown would accept in person on the one condition that it was Jazzie who presented it to him. But on a more day-to-day level, welcome to Jazzie’s world!
For as long as there has been a Soul II Soul success story and studios, there’s been a procession of artists through the doors to take advantage of Jazzie’s production and remixing skills.Jazzie co-wrote and produced a series of tracks with the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. He’s produced Teena Marie, Cheryl Lynn and The Jones Girls and co-produced Maxi Priest and The Chimes. He has remixed for, among others, Public Enemy (So Whatcha Gonna Do), Johnny Gill (Wrap My Body Tight), Fine Young Cannibals (I’m Not The Man I Used To Be), Incognito (Change), and Family Stand’s Ghetto Heaven. Jazzie has also put together some of the greatest club classics collections of recent years, drawing on his sets from the legendary Africa Centre parties and other dances from back in the day.
Jazzie B is an in-demand DJ, playing out as far afield as the USA, Dubai and Croatia, and rocking prestigious houses such as the Lovebox Festival, the Southport Weekender, the Baltic Festival and the Red Bull Music Academy Culture Clash at London’s Roundhouse in 2010, in which Jazzie’s club classics held their own against Trojan, Metalheadz and Digital Mystikz. His total look, the ‘Funki Dred’ continues to grow and change each season, infusing Jazzie’s every endeavour with its vibrant brand. 2013 saw the launch of his Classics Collection with Harvey Nichols, a high end, raw, handmade collection which illustrates the ‘do it yourself’ energy of those early sound system days. Jazzie B’s aesthetic remains fully global. When he performs, he is an envoy of style as well as of sound.
Jazzie has an active teaching and speaking role and he has gone on to become an official FA coach and has worked with youth football teams in North London. He has given talks, with Q&As about his life and the adventures of Soul II Soul all over the country, lectured at Cambridge University, spoken about the changing face of the global music business at Manchester’s annual In The City music conference (2011), talked extensively about sound systems and sound system culture for the Red Bull Music Academy and taught music and music technology at Jamie’s Dream School for Channel 4 in 2011.
In 2008, Jazzie became the first UK sound man to be invited to a Buckingham Palace investiture, when he was awarded an OBE for services to music. In the same year, he was awarded the inaugural Ivor Novello Award for inspiration and as “the man who gave British black music a soul of its own”. In 2013, Jazzie was honoured by his birthplace, Finsbury Park, when local residents selected three distinguished sons and daughters of the area for their contribution and inspiration to the community. An ironwork sculpture of him now stands at the Portrait Bench by the station forecourt, alongside suffragette Edith Garrud and health pioneer Florence Keen.
Macka B makes his debut on the main stage at Wilkswood Roots Reggae 2019 and is sure to be a hit with young and old alike. The Wolverhampton-born reggae artist (aka Christopher MacFarlane) is a performer and activist with a career spanning thirty years.
A committed vegan, Macka B is a patron of the Vegan Society and is a firm devotee of the Rastafarian ital diet. His Medical Mondays and Wha Me Eat Wednesdays social media videos have become a viral internet sensation and his video Cucumba currently has over 1,350,000 views. His latest album, Health is Wealth will take you on a life-improving trip through diverse issues of mental and physical health.
Macka B began his musical journey in the late 70s when the Ever Ready factory he worked at was closed and he was laid off. He began to devote more time to practising his toasting skills, influenced by earlier Jamaican toasters U-Roy, I-Roy, Big Youth and Prince Far I. Macka B formed the Exodus sound system and in 1983 he won a DJ-ing competition and began to feature on local and international radio. The beginning of a long relationship with Neil ‘Mad Professor’ Frasier resulted in the release of his first album Sign of the Times in 1986 on Mad Professor’s Ariwa label. He has since released or featured on over 25 albums and is highly regarded as one of Britain’s most influential dancehall toasters.
As a practicing Rastaman, Macka B’s music is based around the political and spiritual message of the religion, with an often light and humorous touch. Working with the Mad Professor, he combined dancehall and dub styles of reggae, although has avoided a more commercial crossover approach. He takes his name from the Judean rebels against the Greeks, the Maccabees.
Benjamin Zephaniah will make his debut appearance at this year’s Wilkswood Roots Reggae Festival. The veteran British writer, dub poet, actor and musician will be bringing his unique brand of superfluid verse and brooding soundscapes to the main stage (day and time to be confirmed).
Born in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1958, Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. A dyslexic, he left school at 13 unable to read and write but became influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica. By the age of 15 he had started performing poetry in his home town and at 22 he struck off to London to seek a wider audience. Forty years and over a dozen published works of poetry later, Zephaniah is widely considered to be one of the the UK’s most influential writers to chronicle the lives of black people in Britain. He has won the BBC Young Playwright’s Award as well as several honorary doctorates. In 2008 he was listed at 48 in The Times’ list of 50 greatest postwar writers and he is widely acknowledged as the ‘People’s Laureate’.
He has released several albums of both poetry and unique music. His debut EP, Dub Ranting, brought him to the attention of John Peel and Zephaniah became a staple of his evening show throughout the 80s. He has released seven albums, including Back to Roots, Belly of De Beast and 2017’s highly acclaimed Revolutionary Minds. His acting skills have brought him to a wider audience more recently, playing the part of Jeremiah Jesus in BBC2’s Peaky Blinders.
Come and stay in glamping luxury courtesy of Honeybells at this year’s Wilkswood Roots Reggae Festival. With a range of bell tents for up to six people, you and your crew can be comfortable, snug and chilled out. We’re pleased to have teamed up with Honeybells this year to provide yet another extra to make your weekend as enjoyable as possible.
Prices start at £180 for three nights in a basic 6-man bell tent and upgrades include airbeds, bedding, carpets, exterior lighting, interior fairy lights and even your own bunting. Honeybells also have a payment plan to help spread the cost.
Remember: Glamping Hire does not include the festival ticket and these will have to be purchased separately on the Tickets page.
Tickets Selling Fast – book yours before they’re all gone.
Following the success of last year’s festival, tickets for Wilkswood Roots Reggae 2019 are on sale! Taking place over the weekend of Friday July 19th to Sunday July 21st 2019, next year’s family-friendly roots and dub festival will again take place at its usual location at Wilkswood Farm in Langton Matravers, in the heart of the beautiful Purbeck countryside.
Another stellar line-up will be announced as soon as acts are confirmed but next year’s festival will build on previous years’ line-ups which have featured headliners Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Brinsley Forde, General Levy, Tippa Irie, Mad Professor, Janet Kay, Channel One Soundsystem, Carroll Thompson and Earl Sixteen. The 2018 festival featured over 45 live acts, soundsystems, DJs, selectors, poets and comedians as well as an expanded Kid’s Zone and an even wider array of delicious street food and beverages.
Wilkswood Reggae Festival 2022 Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th July Tickets – Last Remaining 25% On Sale
ADULT TICKETS £120 YOUTH TICKETS £50 UNDER 3s FREE!
TICKET PRICE
INCLUDES THREE NIGHTS CAMPING
IN THE BEAUTIFUL PURBECK COUNTRYSIDE IN THE WOODS BY THE SEA.
Get a Good Thing Going and book your tickets today!
The identities of a number of music festivals here and abroad (including the Wilkswood Roots Reggae Festival) have been exploited by an email phishing scam. Unsolicited emails are being sent to artists confirming a performance slot at the festival and offering a performance fee and travel costs (in US $). The emails request that the artist provide details of work visas and other personal details and then often request a deposit to cover administration and travel fees. The scammers are using spoof email addresses but the email will appear to come from the festival organisers. So far several artists in America and Jamaica have reported having received such emails.
We would like to confirm that the Wilkswood Roots Reggae Festival will never book artists and offer performance fees and travel costs in this unsolicited way.
It seems there’s little we can do to prevent what is essentially ‘identity theft’ other than to make as many of you aware of the issue as possible and report the matter to the relevant authorities. Be reassured that the festival website and domain has not been compromised in any way and that the emails do not contain malware but it’s worth reiterating that you should always take your personal online security very seriously. Cybercrime is ever increasing so always remain extra vigilant when responding to emails or making online purchases.
PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY SUSPICIOUS EMAILS. IF IT SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS!
This might all seem obvious but if you receive a suspicious email purporting to be from the Wilkswood Reggae Festival:
Check that the ‘From’ email address ends in ‘@dubwood.co.uk’.
Do not reply to the email.
Do not click on any attachments.
Forward the email to info@dubwood.co.uk, noting your concerns.
Report the email to your email service provider (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc) as phishing. Some providers have the option to send the email to a specialist phishing address.
You can get more information about online fraud from ActionFraud.
2018 TICKETS SELLING FAST!
Just £120 for full adult festival admission & three nights camping.
£60 for under-17s, £20 for under-13s & under-3s go FREE!
Early Bird Tickets SOLD OUT
Don’t be waiting in vain – book your tickets today!
