Melburnians are in for a wonderful treat as the Jamaican Music and Food Festival (JMFF) prepares to grace Williamstown.
The festival embodies the authentic Jamaican experience by providing people with a taste of the culture’s mouthwatering cuisine, along with showcasing live international music of Jamaican origin.
“The main international that we have announced already is General Levy; he is massive from the UK and had a big track in the Ali G series called ‘Incredible’, so he’s coming out to headline the festival for us,” festival director Stick Mareebo says.
“He is a lyrical machine, he’s a wordsmith. He will mesmerise people. We also have Radikal Guru from Poland; he’s a producer, DJ and an engineer and he has his own show – he’s a jack of all trades.”
Other talented artists playing live at the festival include Parly B, Burn City Queenz, Joe Ariwa, DJ Lady Erica, and many more. All the music at the festival is either generated from Jamaica or inspired by Jamaican people, enhancing the diversity of genres. There’s rocksteady, dub, dancehall, roots reggae, and jungle reggae – and that’s just scratching the surface. A lot of international music is released from Jamaica; it’s a very prominent part of the culture held in high spirits.
Among the talented lineup of international artists, Mareebo hints that there is an even bigger name that will be announced in the next few weeks.
Along with amazing live acts, JMFF aims to satisfy their visitors’ tastebuds by providing Jamaican street food such as authentic jerk chicken, delicious patties, Ital vegan, vegetarian street food, and other tasty goodies.
“This festival will have a lot of barbecue smelling food. In Jamaica we call it ‘jerk’, which comes from the original Jamaicans – the Arawak Indians and the Africans,” Mareebo says. “It was a way of curing your meat when you cook it, by smoking it over charcoal.”
The choice of venue for JMFF also resonates with a Jamaican island feel; Mareebo was very impressed when he first visited Seaworks, because it made him feel like he was in Jamaica again.
“When I first went to Seaworks, I walked through the gates and felt like I was in Port Royale, which is a place in Kingston in Jamaica which inspired the series Pirates of the Caribbean,” Mareebo says. “Everything in there is rustic: the building, the old broken down pieces of wood, everything. You have to cross over the Yarra to get there and it’s like going to an island.
JMFF actively aims to tackle the disparity between Jamaica as a developing nation and Australia by supporting two charities: H20 with love and Journey2Free. “H20 with Love started with two ladies in Perth that went to this very small village in Jamaica,” Mareebo says. “The kids there had to carry water by buckets in the mornings before they go to school, so these two ladies decided to try and raise some funds to get the authorities out there to create a pipe that will go up the hill, so that the kids don’t have to carry the drinking water.
“Journey2Free is a charity that reaches out to women, girls and boys who have been molested or sexually abused in Jamaica. There’s this big taboo, people and kids don’t talk about it. This one lady has taken on the big task to speak up by getting girls and mums to speak up and getting people to take action.”
The festival also aims to destigmatise dominant stereotypes of Jamaican culture by banning any form of smoking on the day. “Everyone thinks that people in Jamaica are potheads, and the truth is I don’t smoke and my business partner doesn’t smoke,” Mareebo says. “I don’t have anything against people who smoke, but we want this to be a family event and we don’t want smoking around children. We don’t want smoking in this public space, so we’re definitely out there saying ‘We’re Jamaicans and we’re saying don’t light up here.’”
