Tickets to this year’s stellar lineup for Ska Fest have just gone on sale. This year’s schedule boasts another great selection of artists across the reggae/ska/rocksteady spectrum.
Complete festival passes are $144.50 – check our ticket listings for individual shows.
Leroy ‘Heptone’ Sibbles
Legendary reggae vocalist & bassist Leroy Sibbles rose to fame fronting the Heptones. Starting in the 60s, the Heptones went on to influence the entirety of reggae & rocksteady music, producing countless hits. A massive event for reggae fans in Victoria!
Toots & The Maytals
This legendary reggae group plays the inner harbour on Tuesday July 10. For nearly forty years, Tots & his crew have defined what reggae means to multiple generations. This is not a show to be missed.
Katchafire
Hamilton, New Zealand’s kings of laid-back summer reggae vibes, Katchafire have a strong Victoria following that is no doubt stoked to see them return for another Sk Fest.
FREESHOWS
As always, Ska Fest brings a handful of killer events that come at no charge… this year, Tequila Mockingbird, Blackberry Wood, Natural Flavas, Blitz The Ambassador, Rocky Mountain Rebel Music, Easy Big Fella, Bachaco & Monkey will all play free shows.
Yessir! The end is nigh… so we thought we’d reveal what made our musical year worthwhile. In these internet-fueled times, tastes are so disparate & splintered, it’s always remarkable to see titles pop up on more than one list… it kind of galvanizes an album’s value amidst all the chatter.
So yeah, have a gander. We’ll post on our Facebook as well, please feel free to leave comments or your own lists!
Tickets just went on sale for this mammoth Victoria event & we are super excited to see Rifflandia stretch its legs a little bit. This year, the 4 day event will include Royal Athletic Park, a massive addition that is sure to really hammer home the true spirit of a festival.
This year’s lineup *isn’t finished yet*, but already it’s a fantastic cross section of all genres & styles. Mother Mother, Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids, Daniel Wesley, City & Colour, Awolnation, De La Soul, Cave Singers, J Mascis, Nosaj Thing, Besnard Lakes, AraabMuzik, Blackalicious, Machinedrum, Sage Francis, Tokimonsta, Ra Ra Riot & MOOOOORE will pack Athletic Park & the regular Rifflandia night time venues over four days/nights of amazing music.
This year there are more ticket options than previous years – we strongly encourage you to visit the Rifflandia website’s ticket page to help decide which option best suits you. Couple of points of note:
individual day passes for Fri/Sat/Sun are only available via Rifflandia.com. These passes will get you into Royal Athletic Park for one day only.
There is a limited amount of SUPERPASSES. The Rifflandia Super Pass gets you into the park during the day AND all of the evening events as well – these passes are going quick, so have a good look at THISPAGE: if there bands playing during the day AND night that you really want to see (ie/ you REEEEAALLY want to see both Sage Francis & Mother Mother), then we strongly advise you snatch up a Super Pass pronto to save you the hassle down the line. Honestly, it’s an amazing $165 value.
April 17 is officially Record Store Day! Last year was a great success with a bunch of exclusive & cool releases on RSD & this year promises to be even crazier.
For details on RSD & cool artist quotes/interviews, wander over the RSD site …
Along with sweet exclusives & a crazy amount of new releases in general, there are a few nifty things we’ll be adding on to make Saturday radder than the raddest radness, such as…
LIMITEDPRIZEPACKS (including some of our sweet huge posters!) CHECKOUTTHEPRIZEPACKS The way the prize packs will work is on an “ask first” basis – basically, if there’s a prize pack that you want, ask us at the counter & if we’ve still got it, it’s yours! Obviously the idea here is to get down early!
AWESOMEINJECTION OF USEDVINYL
Not just a normal used lot, we’ll be putting out some sweet rare records, filling up some key artist sections & adding an extra 2 bins of “NEWARRIVALS”, giving you 3 bins of used LP glory to rummage around in.
(Basic Replay) CD
The Basic Replay label is dedicated to reissuing out of print reggae & dub releases. Timely appropriation aside, the label knows what its doing; this CD compiles notable dancehall, reggae & dub standouts from a myriad of artists, including Jackie Mittoo, Keith Hudson & Barry Brown among others. A handful of tracks are followed by their instrumental version, illuminating the brilliant production being resurrected here. Fans of the UK’s current wave of dub step should check out this great compilation of influential sounds.
