Take Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley, Steel Pulse, Kabaka Pyramid, Romain Virgo and the mighty Channel One Sound System and stick them in the Crystal Palace Bowl on a balmy midsummer day and you’ve got all the ingredients for a rather special reggae day out. Add some rum and some herb and over 10,000 like-minded souls and you’ve got one of the best days out of the 2024 festival calendar. .

The Jamrock reggae day also coincided with the 40th Anniversary of Reggae Royalty Bob Marley’s famous gig at the same venue, so it was a special event for the Marley family with Julian Marley making a very welcome appearance alongside his brother Damian to cap off the night.

It was a fantastic celebration of Reggae music crossing genres from Romains Lovers rock though Channel One & Steel Pulses roots right up to the bleeding edge of Jamaican reggae and dancehall with Damian and Kabaka. The South London crowd were on fine form with a fantastic vibe across the site all day long. I did stumble across one dickhead who had clearly consumed too much for his tiny brain to cope with and was making a nuisance of himself, but out of what I suspect was either a sell out or near capacity crowd of up to 15,000 people that a pretty good dickhead ratio! The vibes were really high all day long.

The bowl is an interesting venue in that it’s a natural amphitheatre leading down to the lake at the bottom of the bowl and the iconic stage. I was slightly disappointed that the event didn’t make use of this, opting to erect a bigger stage over the top of the lake totally obscuring the lake and original stage from view. The stage and sound system quickly recovered from my disappointment as it was the perfect size to accommodate all the artists and the sound system was deep and heavy in the bass department and bright and crisp up at the top. It sounded great wherever you were in the bowl.

Seani B was chief in charge of proceedings, and made sure to get the crowd in the mood for a bit of skanking! First up was Mickey Dread and the Channel one crew who warmed up the crowd ready for Romain Virgo’s hefty dose of lovers rock! Kabaka Pyramid stepped it up with his high intensity performance (and my favourite set of the day) then Steel Pulse then took to the stage and showed why they hold the crown as the UK’s biggest and best performing reggae act. Last and by far not least the legend and my personal favourite of the Marley clan brought the intensity back up with the help of Kabaka and Julian Marley joining him on stage.