DeeKnow’s Grotto

Bob Marley was born in Jamaica on February 6th 1945, and coinciding with the date the organisers of the SoundSplash regage festival held this years event on Saturday and Sunday of last weekend. Lord Plunket, McClaren and I headed over middayish, setup a tent and joined the fray on Wainui reserve just out of town

It was a bloody great day with some amazing acts and a superb vibe. Katchafire and Fat Freddys Drop were awesome, and Trinity Roots absolutely rocked (in a reagga kinda way). As one of the performers said at one point New Zealand really has got an amazingly rich base of performers and producers at the moment.

Apparently gate sales stopped once attendance reached about 4,000 although it didn't seem quite that busy. The main stage was set deep down in the base of a gulley and forms this amazing natural amphitheatre.

One thing we all noticed after an hour or two was the distinct absence of any Ganja in the air. There really wasnt any heavy security presence and the police stayed away for the whole duration so it seemed suprising that smokers werent going hard at it. That was in the early evening though and as soon as the sun set all of a sudden there was a chorus of striking lighters and what appeared to be some special effects smoke screen seemed to settle down on the crowd.

Lets just say, you hardly needed to bring your own :-)

11:20:23 PM