Today is being celebrated worldwide as International Reggae Day (IRD).

To mark IRD two of reggae's most illustrious sons Bob Marley and Toots Hibbert will be honoured with the Cultural Hero Award and the Living Legend Award respectively. Both awards will be presented later this month.

International Reggae Day is a yearly on-air/online event founded by communication specialist Andrea Davis, principal of Jamaica Arts Holdings, promoter/producer for the event to be observed this year on every continent.

"IRD will be commemorated by each participating media organisation in terms of their programming format on Friday, July 1, on all continents," Davis told the Observer.

This, she said, will include two digital radio stations run by two Jamaican programmers, the Washington-based XM Radio with Dermot Hussey at the helm, and Sirius Satellite Radio in California headed by Wayne Jobson, formerly of the Native Band.

Davis said that there will be special programming on the RJR Group, Irie FM, Roots FM, KLAS, HOT 102, Megajamz, Kool FM, RE-TV and Hype TV stations on which each presenter will do his or her own thing.

As a virtual media festival, the IRD which started in 1994, had in the past a local concert showcasing top Jamaican artistes, fashion, cuisine while "edutaining" through media panels, workshops, forums and cultural lecture series, about intellectual property issues, the business of music and the potential of cultural industries.

However, this year there is a scaling down of the activities.
"There will be no concert this year as we took a decision to focus more on the media this year while developing the on-the-ground festivities for future staging."

The global reggae party will highlight a number of new releases among which are Diana King's You Dun Kno (sic) featuring Gunjan, Junior Kelly's Freedom featuring K-Salaam, Luciano's Love and Unity as well as Jamaica United produced by Bobby 'Digital' Dixon it will also feature a slew of reggae ambassadors such as Luciano, Morgan Heritage, Anthony B, Tony Rebel, Capleton, Jah Mason, Angel, Renee, Lymie Murray, Kulcha Knox, AJ Brown, Sly Dunbar, Danny 'Axeman' Thompson and Dalton Browne.

There will also be special IRD tracks featuring live concert performances on previous festivals by Culture, Mighty Diamonds, Ken Boothe, Sugar Minott, George Nooks, Brent Dowe, Abijah, and Dean Fraser among others.

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