There are few weekends I look forward to more than a festival weekend. Whether it be reconnecting with friends and making new, finding a hidden gem in a new band, or jamming to some of my favorites, or taking 1000s of pictures to get that one special shot – these are some of the weekends that make the year. While there was some online negativity going into this festival and many questioning whether this would be the last year for Reggae Rise Up in Maryland it didn’t matter, I knew from previous years that Maryland knows how to get down, and this year would be no different.

As we exited the car on Friday to pick up our photo passes, we were immediately hit in the chest with an intense heat. Before we even got to the media tent, I was soaked, and I knew it would be a scorcher of a weekend. We grabbed our photo passes, met some smiling familiar faces of photographers from past years, and welcomed some photographers new to this festival. With our photo stickers affixed to our clothing we enter the festival, fill up our water bottles, head to the shaded tent, and take in the vibrant and soulful atmosphere that will consume us for the next 3 days.

A few hundred people made their way to greet the first band of the weekend to the stage. Higher Education made the trip to open the festival from about an hour down the road. Hailing from Prince George’s County, Maryland this local band not only brought their friends, but they brought the energy to get this party started! Combining rock, reggae, ska, and psychedelia their set was a lot of fun and they thanked the small but lively crowd for coming out early and dancing in the 95-degree heat.

The Wide Eyed Kids brought us a smooth blend of reggae, and soul that they formed in Honolulu, Hawaii. While this was the first time hearing the trio play live, I thought they brought a big sound that had the crowd swaying to their rhythms.

The weather is creeping closer to 100 degrees while the crowd is starting to fill in a bit more. The security guards are trying to give some relief to the heat by handing out bottles of water to those in need and spraying down the crowd up front with cool water. While security is doing its best to cool the crowd down, Through the Roots is about to add more fire to this blistering day. The San Diego band has a traditional reggae backbone, but layers in thick electric guitar work and their use of echo made their modern-day reggae sound my favorite of the day to this point. The crowd was on point singing Tequila X Cannabis back to Evan Hawkins and the rest of the band almost word for word. It’s been a few years since I last saw Through the Roots perform live, and after the set they delivered, I don’t want to wait as long to see them live again!

Have you ever been wrong? Like it or not, we all have. It’s hard to admit sometimes. I was wrong, but now I see the light. “I need a hat to hide under.” I am embarrassed to say that I never gave Mike Love a chance, and for that, I have wasted days, months, and years without his positive musical messages, his beautiful roots soul, and just uplifting spirit. Watching him perform live was like watching and listening to a masterpiece unfold before your eyes and ears. As a solo artist, Mike painted the bassline in one loop, sculped the percussion in another, and then laid down his guitar and vocals to finish off his musical journey. So much talent.

A band that has been fun to watch and grow over the years is Tropidelic. This six-piece band out of Ohio likes to have fun mixing in an occasional cover with their originals during their set. They can bring a big sound and for the festival brought a couple of backup singers that helped fill out their sound and add some additional energy to a stage that was jamming, The crowd was dancing and swaying to some favorites like People Talk, and Movie Star while which was impressive since the gates had been open for over 5 crispy hours by this time.

Celebrating their 10th year as a band out of Boston, The Elovaters take the stage and immediately hit the crowd with one of my favorites – Castaway, from their 2023 Endless Summer album. The crowd, now about three-fourths full, has waves of people dancing together, some smiling, some with eyes closed as they let The Elovaters sound wash over them playing favorites like Gimme Love, Shots Fired, and ending their set with a summer classic, Margaritas.

The Elovaters had a great set and sounded so good, so zero disrespect to them at all… but when their set ended, the crowd filled in, fully. You see, The Elovaters had the honor to play in front of reggae legends Steel Pulse; and while The Elovaters are celebrating their 10th year of music,
Steel Pulse is coming up on their 50th anniversary.

Steel Pulse, originally from England, opened for 2 of my all-time favorite artists back in the day – The Clash, and of course, Bob Marley (who famously claimed that Steel Pulse was one of his favorite reggae bands). So, yeah – the crowd filled in to see the legends. David Hinds and the band did not disappoint. Both old and younger reggae fans were jamming as Steel Pulse played classics like Your House, and Roller Skates. Their stage presence was electric – everyone on that stage was smiling and having a great time like it was their first year as a band, not almost their 50th (for some).

Switching gears from the legends to our next artist, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go down. Coming to us from Australia, Xavier Rudd brought his many talents to the stage. His sound has a smooth folk and indie sound to it, playing everything from drums, acoustic guitar, harmonica, and didgeridoo and looping them all together is beyond impressive. Xavier sat behind his drum kit and even knocked out a little Get Up Stand Up, Bob Marley Cover. As if Xavier Rudd’s music wasn’t beautiful enough, if you were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time you might have caught the view of a full moon spotlighting Xavier’s magical performance.

Closing out night one was Iration, a staple to reggae festivals and a band that never disappoints. The band from Hawaii always brings the energy and this set didn’t disappoint as they started with Day Trippin, followed by Time Bomb to get the crowd dancing and singing along. The sun was down, it was a little cooler, and everyone was giving it all singing back to Iration and having an excellent time. The band added to the fun and energy by dropping in a little of Nirvana’s Teen Spirit (reminded me of Wu-Tang at CaliVibes a few years ago for a moment IYNYN). Iration ended their set and the evening with another sing-along anthem and one of their classics, Falling.

On that day one was in the books. A hot day where the music just seemed to get better and better sounding. A day where we started with a local band from an hour down the road in Maryland, and ended up celebrating the sound of reggae by traveling the globe including Hawaii, England, and Australia.

Matt Grube & Todd Judd