It’s been a while since I last wrote about my experience at a Festival. It had actually been some time since I had gone to a festival and camped, and this was a beautiful mid-summer occasion.
If you’ve read my blog before you may know I like to write about practices and experiences that I find healing, elevating and inspiring and Nomad Reggae Festival certainly meets all of the above.
I grew up listening to Bob Marley and The Wailers as my dad had the CD and played it often and over the years my musical taste evolved to include Dancehall, so when I heard about this festival and saw the line-up, I booked tickets before even knowing how we would get there, and I am so glad I did!
About the Festival
A major selling point other than the incredible artists participating was seeing Nomade Reggae Festival’s social commitment.
As per their website, Nomade Reggae Festival is building a Socio-medical and alphabetisation centre in Mali.
Knowing that we could contribute to this project by participating in the festival was a great reason to go.
Here you can see a video of the incredible work they have been doing:
Artist Line up
If you like Reggae and Dancehall you probably recognise many of the names mentioned here.
I didn’t recognise all of them before the festival but I’m happy to say I did see them all and they were all Amazing!!!
Everyone who went on stage is a high quality artist and they all offered something unique through their voice and presence.
The message
This is what I spoke most about when we arrived back home – the message.
This is something I love aboute Reggae and the Rastafari movement. The lyrics generally talk about union and acceptance of one another.
Most artists took time to share a positive message between songs, accentuating the importance of unity amongst all skin colours, ages and religions, which in turn creates a loving atmosphere of course.
People
I love events that gather people from all walks of life, abilities, ages, genders and colours and Nomade festival was a beautiful example of this. I loved seeing mixed families and groups of friends, some dancing some chatting and others just chilling.
I think it’s so important for different generations to mingle and fortunately reggae has the power to bring people together in this way.
Site
I believe this was the first year the festival took place at this new site and I thought it was Great.
The festival area was located between mountains and surrounded by trees.
There is even a natural water spot walking distance though we didn’t make it.
And there’s a camping with free showers, which I only found out about on Monday morning but I would have used them more if I had known.
Camping
The camping area was simple with large bins and toilets that were cleaned every so often.
Food
I can’t speak much of the many vendors that had stands at the festival as we only ate from two of them.
The Ethiopian vendors had this beautiful veggie plate for 10euros which was delicious and filling.
We also ate from a stand from Guadeloupe who had a vegan Bokit option, which was delicious too.
What could be better
Though I would recommend going and and I would like to go back next year, I think there are areas which could be improved upon.
I am no festival organiser but I can imagine how much organisation it requires so I share these not to criticise but in the hope the organisers may come across these and feel inspired to consider them for the next festival.
- potable water points
- compost toilets
- freedom to come in and out of the festival
- more veggie options
Us
The “we” I have been referring to includes my boyfriend, my best friend, her husband and son (who is my godson) and myself 🙂
Thanks
Big thank you to the festival organisers, the security staff, the food stands and other vendors, the volunteers, all the artists and all the festival goers. It was a blast!
Thank you for reading,
One Love
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Thanks to the wonderful photographer who captured this moment of joy 🙂
Yogibee 