Sister Nancy and General Levy will headline this year's Afro Caribbean Carnival at Fed Square, alongside three local sound systems.
When Stick Mareebo arrived in Melbourne in the late 1980s, Jamaican sound system culture was essentially non-existent.
“I used to have to travel up to Sydney to listen to a sound system called Soulmaker, which was built in 1974 by a Jamaican guy from the UK,” Mareebo tells Beat.
It wasn’t until the early 2000s that Melbourne got its own sound system, Stryka D’s Heartical HiFi.
“I remember when Heartical first built that sound system in 2002. It was the very first reggae sound system to be built in Melbourne,” Mareebo says.
Afro Caribbean Carnival
- Saturday 21 February
- Fed Square
- Free entry
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Fast forward to 2026, and there are 30 active sound systems in Melbourne. Mareebo doesn’t operate his own system, but as a DJ and event promoter, he has been instrumental in introducing local audiences to the sounds and flavours of his home country.
He’ll be widening the net even further when the Afro Caribbean Carnival returns to Fed Square on 21 February. The free entry event will feature three sound systems and two mega overseas headliners, dancehall great Sister Nancy and jungle MC General Levy.
“Just so excited to present them in such a big scale at such an iconic venue,” Mareebo says.
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Afro Caribbean Carnival is part of Fed Square’s Open Air at the Square program, which runs throughout February. Three physical sound systems will set up near the garden beds inside Fed Square: Lulu Quintanilla’s General Feelings Sound; the El Gran Mono-offshoot New Flower, featuring DJ Dijok and vocalist AKOSIA; and the newest sound system on the block, Yabai Hifi.
“Each sound system plays for a maximum of 45 minutes, and they’ll have some MCs and DJs,” Mareebo says.
Sister Nancy will be performing on the Fed Square stage alongside DJ Matty Dread of France’s Legal Shot Sound System. Sister Nancy and Legal Shot are regular touring pals, and they collaborated on the 2024 EP, RUB A DUB STORY.
“With Sister Nancy and Legal Shot, it’s not like the sound system culture here in Melbourne,” Mareebo says. “It’s more like the origins of the sound system dancehall in Jamaica in the 80s, where Legal Shot and Sister Nancy is a unit. He’s not just her DJ. Both of them are artists in their own right.”
Mareebo first saw Sister Nancy perform when he was a teenager in Jamaica, on a bill with her brother, Brigadier Jerry.
“Brigadier was my DJ. He was, like, the artist of my time,” Mareebo says. “But Sister Nancy never gave in, never gave up.”
Sister Nancy’s 1982 song Bam Bam is one of the most widely recognised dancehall songs of all time, and it’s been sampled by everyone from Lauryn Hill to Groove Armada and JAY-Z.
“Everyone loves Bam Bam and it’s played at just about every party, everywhere,” Mareebo says. “But the thing is, Sister Nancy has a song called One Two, and for me, that is the Sister Nancy song.”
General Levy, from London, is best-known for his era-defining toasting on Incredible, the 1994 single by jungle producer M-Beat.
“I could never get sick of seeing General Levy,” Mareebo says. “He seems like he’s a child on stage all of the time. He just has so much fun.”
Levy has been a frequent visitor to Australia over the last decade. “He keeps coming back because people just love him,” Mareebo says. “Not many artists can tour the world over and over and over again on the back of one song. But General Levy can. He could do five different versions of Incredible and everyone would just dance their heads off.”
General Levy will be playing on the Fed Square main stage with DJ Joe Ariwa, the son of dub legend Mad Professor.
“I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse, but he could not escape from what he’s doing,” Mareebo says of Ariwa’s involvement in music. “He is an amazing producer in his own right. He is Mad Professor reincarnated, or the second.”
The main stage lineup also includes DJs Zare Demus, Outsider and Fasmwa.
“Zare Demus is a very prolific Jamaican guy who is a DJ here,” says Mareebo. “DJ Outsider is probably the most popular woman DJ on the reggae/dancehall circuit at the moment. And to bring in a bit of Trinidad and Tobago Caribbean carnival flavour, we’re flying in Fasmwa from Sydney, who is going to bring the calypso and soca.”
Food is always an important feature of Mareebo’s events, and the Swanston Street Forecourt will be well stocked with flavours of the African diaspora.
“We have Braz Oz that is bringing the Brazilian BBQ down. We have Vola Foods from Cameroon. And of course, we have The Real Jerk, which is Jamaican,” Mareebo says.
“Food is really my passion,” he adds. “And this year, we will not let you down with the food at Fed Square.”
The party will kick off at 6pm and last for four hours. Mareebo can’t wait.
“It’s such a heartwarming thing for Federation Square and the Melbourne Arts Precinct to identify the need for the inclusion of this event in their summer program,” he says. “It just makes everyone feel so happy.”
Afro Caribbean Carnival is on Saturday 21 February. Learn more about Open Air at the Square here.
This article was made in partnership with Fed Square.
