I have been following the reggae scene in Europe since the mid-70s. Since that time I have had the ultimate opportunity to witness the growth of reggae music in Europe. During this period I also started playing music as a DJ and booking live reggae shows in Sweden

Unbeknownst to me, my introduction to reggae music was Jimmy Cliff’s album Unlimited and I recall being instantly mesmerised by this new genre I had never heard before, and that was the beginning of a 50-year love story.

I migrated from my home country, Eritrea, as a teenager and came to Sweden in the mid-70s when I could count on two hands the number of black people living in my city. During this time, reggae music played a vital role in helping us cope with adjusting to life in a European country as a young African man.

The very first reggae show I attended was Bob Marley & The Wailers in Gröna Lund, Stockholm, in the summer of 1976. I also had the opportunity to see them again at the same venue the following summer and this time I took the opportunity to sneak in backstage and meet Marley and the band. It was a great vibe and we ended up having a heated political discussion with about Eritrea and Ethiopia, but that’s another story. My strongest memory from that show was the 20-minute version of Exodus they performed, the curfew had passed and the stage manager had to drag a dancing Marley off stage which is an imagine that will never leave my brain.

In June 1980, while I was visiting my aunt in Milan, Italy, I heard about a show at San Siro Stadium with Bob Marley, Average White Band, Richie Havens, and a few more, I immediately decided to attend. Little did I know that I was going to witness a show that was going to be remembered as a classic, with 120,000 people in attendance and majority of the crowd there to see Bob Marley. As the opening acts were taking the stage, the crowd grew impatient and started booing them and throwing objects on stage which ultimately chased the Scottish funk band Average White Band off the stage.

At this point, the 120,000 patrons started chanting “Bob Marley, Bob Marley”, so Marley and his crew had to get police escort through the busy city of Milan to the venue and rush them on stage a couple of hours ahead of their scheduled time. What followed was an eclectic three-hour show in front of a euphoric crowd skanking along for every minute. This was the kind of euphoria reggae would bring us back in those days.

Today the question has to be asked, where does reggae stand in Europe, and the rest of the world?

In the 1980s, after the unfortunate early death of brother Bob, we still had a few artistes who kept the reggae flag high, like Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff, Third World, Black Uhuru and others.

In the 1990s we witnessed quite a substantial decline of patrons filling stadiums and big venues. Instead, reggae was moved into smaller and darker venues, and there was no budget to bring big bands anymore. This meant horn sections was substituted by the keyboard Yamaha M7, and in my opinion a terrible substitute that changed the music we love. Nowadays you will hardly see band carrying a horn section, or even a rhythm and lead guitarist for that matter, which I find regrettable.

In Europe, however, reggae festivals are thriving. Even after two years of a pandemic, we have a few new festivals emerging this year, especially in the UK.

Simultaneously, the smaller venue shows keep declining more and more especially the shows with Jamaican reggae artistes. In the past it was not uncommon to have some of the biggest Jamaican reggae stars performing at club venues in the biggest capitals in Europe all year. Today you will mainly find them at your biggest European summer festivals instead.

Today you will hardly find many reggae artistes who can do a two-to-three-month tour in Europe, as they did back in the days. At best, only a handful reggae artistes can do that kind of tour, and that is mainly possible only during the summer season which includes festival dates as well.

This has also led to the decline and disappearance of many promoters and agents who organised these smaller shows. The European reggae scene has undoubtedly shrunk after the pandemic, but I am very hopeful and optimistic that we can rebuild it in the near future.

In the past decade, there has been a shift on the European reggae scene as well, where a lot of new European reggae artistes have gained a huge following locally. This has translated to the composition of the festival line-ups as well. If we review the line-ups of European reggae festivals in recent years, we will notice that at least half of the line-up are not reggae artistes out of Jamaica. This also includes my own festival.

For the past 20 years, we at Uppsala Reggae Festival have worked by the principle that at least 75 per cent of the line-up should be composed of Jamaican reggae artistes, but this is getting increasingly harder with the rise in popularity of local reggae artistes in Europe.

In addition, we are not seeing as many new rising Jamaican reggae starts (no pun intended) today as we did 10 years ago. This also poses some challenges for us as we want to book a variety of Jamaican artistes each year and not repeat the same artistes too often and be a platform for upcoming artistes as we always have been.

Another aspect that I find concerning is that a few of the Jamaican artistes are not bringing Jamaican bands when they come on tour in Europe. They utilise European musicians. I understand that the circumstances for the artistes have changed as well and it’s probably done out of necessity and budget reasons.

However, it still concerns me because if that trend continues, it will undoubtedly hurt the genre in the long run. If young talented Jamaican musicians end up giving up their dreams, because they see no reason to attend a school like Edna Manley College to sharpen their craft, it will result in the total transformation of the genre.

So, what could be the reason?

What is the cause of the dwindling followers of our genre?

Has hype taken precedence over talent, so our music is suffering?

Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers in this matter, but I am very worried where we are heading.

Just to use an example: One of reggae’s superstars Ziggy Marley will be performing at O2 Academy Brixton (UK) with a capacity of almost 6,000 people in June and tickets have been available since February… tickets are still available. He is out on a tribute tour to his father, so in my mind that should be selling out bigger venues.

Put that in comparison with Wizkid, the Nigerian Afrobeat superstar, who just sold out three consecutive shows at The O2 Arena in London with a capacity of 20,000. The tickets were sold out in a matter of a staggering 35 minutes.

This brings to mind the heated ongoing discussions on social media about why Billboard has dropped the reggae chart two years ago and started an Afrobeat chart. Food for thought.

I cannot help to mention what a sad and hurting week this is for reggae. First, we lost Tabby Diamond to a senseless drive-by shooting, and now Bunny Diamond has passed away after many years of illness. May they rest in eternal peace, and our deepest condolences to both family and, of course, to their third partner Judge Diamond.

Yared Tekeste is of Eritrean origin living in Sweden since 1975. He has been a DJ since 1976. Toured with Misty in Roots at the end of 70s and started producing shows mid-80s. He created Uppsala Reggae Festival in 2001 and produces it together with his wife Adiam Kubrom and daughter Malayka Yared. In 2020 Tekeste filled the void by collaboration with sister festival Reggae Jam in Germany by producing and streaming an eight-hour virtual live reggae festival from two stages out of Harry J Recording Studio in Kingston. This was repeated in 2021 for the festival’s 20th anniversary.