Event: One Love Peace Festival
Venue: Wembley Arena, London
Date: 31st July 201
This years One Love Peace Festival was geared towards celebrating the 30 years since the passing of the legend that is Bob Marley and also to campaign against Knife and Gun Crime with the tag line “Throw Away your Guns, Throw Away your Knives and save a life” this was less of a Festival and more of movement.
We bring you our review of our day, full of exceptional music, dancing, laughter and even drama! Allow Hit the Floor to take you through our favourite moments.
Gyptian has the ladies going mad in the clubs whenever ‘Nah Let Go‘ and ‘Hold Yuh‘ are spun by the DJ, but nothing beats being in an arena with over 12000 people and seeing the girls go mad when he performs these tracks. A suprisingly early set for an artist who is distinguishing himself from his generation but definately a great way to start the day.
The day was broken up well and we had a speech by none other than Dragon Slayer and Reggae Reggae sauce maker Levi Roots. Levi touched on the stereotyping of today’s children and rather than pushing them aside we needed to take time out and invest in them. We were then treated to a performance from a dance group he had invested in from Peckam, by the name of Dance Wicked who incorporated the Jamaican style of dancing into their fun routine. Later in the evening Levi Roots performed a few tracks, and without being too disheartening you do wonder if he would have been performing at such an event if he had not become a minor celebrity for his tasty sauce.
Memories of my childhood will always bring back summer times with friends listening to Aswad’s ‘Shine’, and YESSSSS they performed it. There is no denying that Aswad are legends and brought together a set that was so laidback that you could easily have been sitting by the pool with a cocktail or two and life would be complete. If Aswad had only performed ‘Shine‘ I would have been happy but they also threw in a few more songs and a medley of classic tunes including ‘The Closer I Get To You‘, ‘Don’t Turn Around‘ and ‘My Girl‘. If you only you could bottle up their aura, you could make millions.
When I am old and sitting in my rocking chair talking to my great grandchildren and my old school iPod is playing music I will be able to say that I watchded John Holt perform ‘Stick By Me‘ and ‘Tide Is High‘.
Before I touch on the main acts we also had a lot of speeches and dancing throughout the day including the Jamiacan High Commisioner. One of the most touching parts of the day came in the form of 3 young children who represented ‘Not Another Drop‘ campaign, they spoke of the responsibilty of parents, fathers who abandon their children and of the youth of today BUT what really hit home was the visual display of those who have died within the last few years from Knife and Gun crimes, it was incredibly touching and really brang home the whole point of the 2011 ‘One Love Peace Festival‘. Dancing came in the form of Nu Flow with the amazing 9 year old Janni, whilst Akai had the crowd breathless with his body popping, backflips and breakdancing.
Busta Rhymes has not performed in the UK for 3 years but returned specially for One Love. Busta Rhymes performed alongside SpliffStar in the stand out set of the night. Most acts had a live band but not Busta, all he needed was his DJ and SpliffStar. The set was absolutely incredible, full of high energy as he went through his back catalogue of hits incluing ‘Ante Up‘ and ‘I Know What You Want‘ which the ladies lurvedddd. Busta Rhymes did not just perform he put on a masterclass to the younger generation as he showcased his lyrical tongue as he spat his verse from ‘Look At Me Now’ which left his fans spellbound. Ending his set was always going to be difficult but he had 12,000 people jumping in unison as he ended with ‘Jump Jump‘, it was one of the best things I have ever been part of.
Earlier in the review I touched on their being drama and it seemed to focus more on the UK acts, which upset me as I am a big fan of UK music. With the night running away from the organisers they had to catch up with time and they seemed to just completely cut out performances by Bashy and Donaeo without even a mere mention.
Skepta was next up on the stage and he did a set of four songs, whilst he gave the set his all you had a feeling he was unhappy, and this was confirmed as he left the stage by saying that although he had planned a longer set he had been told that he couldn’t and this was down to the poor time management of the organisers whilst in the background of his performance they were building the set for Sean Paul. You may think that this seemed bad what happened next couldn’t have even be written for a comedy sketch show, it was announced that Sean Paul was to come one stage then we were told that actually we would get to see Princess Nyah first. Princess Nyah came on and looked absolutely stunning, as if an angel had fallen out of heaven, and started performing ‘Frontline‘ yet looked uncomfortable and very unhappy then she just stopped the set, she proceeded to tell us that whilst she was perfoming they were soundcheking for the next act! We were then treated to ‘Do What I Want‘ before she went off stage, what a way to be treated on your birthday.
Sean Paul came on stage with a funky looking mohican, but putting that aside we were treated to set which included hit after hit. There is no doubting the pedigree of Sean Paul and everybody seemed to be enjoying the set which transported you back to his earlier years. However, being a global superstar did not help as his set was also cut short and you knew he was unhappy as he stormed off during his last track having told London that he loved them.
BORN ENTERTAINER these are two words that should have Shaggy’s face beside them in the dictionary. Shaggy had the crowd eating out of his hands as he joked with us,danced with us and blessed our lives with the music that many of us had grown up with. Each song took us back to specific parts of our lives as he performed ‘Boombastic‘, ‘Angel‘ and ‘It Wasn’t Me‘. This was the perfect ending to a great day and was only marred by the fact that Shaggy did not perform ‘Oh Carolina’ and it was a shortened set which Shaggy himself did not want to finish. It got to the point where the organisers just turnt on all the lights in the stadium.
On the whole it was a fantastic day and although there were issues with the timings it is something that the organisers will be able to look back on as they prepare for 2012 in their new home of Wembley Stadium. A special shout out has to go to Wassifa who provided the music in between the acts and always picked the best possible tracks to keep the crowd pumped up.
One Love Peace until next year.
Reviewer: Michael OC
