Oneness Lives: Finding unity and togetherness at Reggae Rise Up 2018

Peace, positivity and pot.

The three P’s were definitely present at Reggae Rise Up 2018, but the two things missing on that list make up the biggest theme that I encountered while at the festival.

That would be the theme of unity and togetherness. The two words combined is something that is referred to as “Oneness”, a concept that Badda Skat, local DJ and Rastafari is well aware of and continues to promote in his everyday life. Badda had this to say about the concept.

“In all of creation, we’re all connected, so all living things are all connected by this vibration,” he said while we both were looking out at the cityscape. “The message of Oneness is something I stand for to the fullest.”

The St. Pete-based artist isn’t the only one who promotes the message of Oneness, in fact quite literally every person that I spoke to was a proud ambassadors of the message. It’s not just a reggae thing though, because I spoke to Ambrose, bassist for J. Boog and he says that music itself is what envelopes the message of unity.

“Music has always brought people together for thousands of years,” he said before equating music to water and how it is necessary for our survival. Boog himself referred to music as an escape, and knows the effect of the art from well enough to respect the craft.

“It’s a powerful thing when you do write and create music,” he said. Personally I couldn’t agree more.

Though the crowd was together as one, the hum of at least 9,000 people filled Vinoy Park each day. Adam St. Simons, Media Director and Promotions Manager told me that the festival itself attracted over 28,000 people over the entire weekend. On St. Patrick’s Day alone, the park hosted a festival record breaking number of bodies: just over 10,000 people. That number didn’t frighten festival newcomers, like Cleveland-based act, Tropidelic, which put on an amazing set and had an explosive horn section. I was, however, warned of potential dangers that present themselves while killing it on the trumpet.

“The lips are like the sphincter, and I don’t want a blown out face,” Tropidelic’s Derek McBryde said when asked what it was like to play horns for such a large number of people. He and I both laughed at the thought of having a sphincter as lips but in all seriousness though, Derek and rest of the guys were just as passionate about the crowd coming together. Tropidelic also stated that the St. Pete area is one of their favorite stops in Florida so be sure to catch these guys the next time the band escapes from the frozen Midwest tundra.

As the festival went on I got more and more answers about music bringing us together. While speaking to Australian native, Nattali Rize, she had to say this about the crowd, “It’s one big family, so we’re all here co-creating this energy together.”

Unfortunately for her and the band, the festival was the last stop on the band’s tour. The group did manage to soak up the St. Petersburg sun for a few days afterwards before Rize & Co. headed home and got back to work on a new album. Though St. Pete was the last, it was certainly not the worst, and Nattali showed no signs of fatigue after killing it with her band and then again with Iya Terra.

After what felt like a few hours, SOJA was on stage and the weekend was coming to an end. It was a bit heartbreaking, but before rolling out I was able to speak with Bobby Lee, bassist of SOJA and I was able to ask for some thoughts on the weekend as well as his take on the crowd and how they united as one. He had this to say: “It was amazing, and I felt like the crowd brought the energy and in turn we fed off that and brought more energy too.”

That energy could be felt not only through Bobby’s bouncy bass but the throughout the entire band’s set.

“Tonight was a perfect example of that cyclical motion,” Lee said, adding that he intends to write even more music to stop the division among people. “We need more love more for sure, love conquers everything,” he said before also quoting the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King and Bruce Lee.

Fortunately for St. Pete, reggae, the music or the love didn’t stop at Vinoy Park. The crowd was able to shuffle through St. Pete’s streets and shuffle into the State Theater each night for an after party, I caught the last after show and was able to catch the likes of Dubbest, SensaMotion and The Expanders. By the time I was done and the music was over, I was pretty sad to say goodbye to the Rise Up community, but luckily for me and all other reggae lovers, the music and community will be back this summer when Slightly Stoopid, Pepper and Stick Figure come to Vinoy Park as a part of their School’s Out For Summer 2018 tour.