The One Love World Reggae festival 2016 was held in Lignano, Italy. Lignano is a typical tourist destination, the most tourists are from Austria and Germany.

The highlight of the town is the very long sand beach with its warm water from the adriatic sea, the shopping boulevard and of course the italian food. I know Lignano very well and my personal favourite spot is the beach close to the Tagliamento. At this part of the river, there are lesser tourists and not thousands of sun loungers and sun shade umbrellas and it still looks natural.

The festival itself was at the "Girasole" camping site. The idea to make a festival on a camping site was perfect, because the visitors of the festival were able to make camping holidays and enjoy the music at once. The distance from the camping area to the festival-stage was a short walk, the area had enough trees with shady places, it was clean and the most important thing was: the structure of the camping site and festival was very clear arranged. The highlight of the place was the pool and for the visitors which wanted to relax at the sea drove a bus from the camping site to the beach for free.

I still remember the times when the Rototom was held in Osoppo, Italy. I loved the festival because it had a special relaxing vibe. There wasn´t unnecassary rules or hidden costs from the organisers like other festivals. The One Love festival even topped the Rototom at Osoppo. The organisers did a fantastic job with the management of the festival: no hidden costs, no silly rules, a very clear structure and arrangement of the festival area, very friendly securities, enough toilets, the area was always very clean, everything was beautiful decorated in red, gold and green, also the technical aspect of the festival like the sound and lightsystem was powerful and beautiful. Once u got your entry-ticket for the festival and the camping you was able to feel free and enjoy every second of it.

Some Reggae festivals are visited by people which just wants to get drunken, make noise and troubles or even more worse, they starts to get violent. The massive of the One Love festival are completly different. They are a big Reggae family and love was in the air. i was able to feel this every time and everywhere. From kids to the elders, everybody had a smile in their faces and you got immediatly infected of the positive vibrations. Even the bandmembers of Morgan Heritage got infected by this vibe and they walked around the area and had their lunch at the public food stand for 1,5 hours instead of eating and staying at the backstage area. They loved and enjoyed it!

Of course a important part of a festival are the artists. For me 2 women ruled the festival. One was Etana, she did a very great heartful performance and the other one was Sistah Awa. I already saw Sistah Awa last year where she impressed me with her sound of voice. From last year until the One Love festival she did a huge progress. Big Up, Empress! Please organisers, next time let her perform on the main stage.
Morgan Heritage were very professional, you was able to feel this from the soundcheck until the last note they played. Their present album is great, they well-deserved the Reggae Grammy Award 2016.
Lion D, Yaniss Odua, Jesse Royal and Harrison Stafford also did great performances and they conquered my and the massive´s hearts. Gappy Ranks of course is my UK Dancehall-King, Pull Up!

We already miss the One Love World Reggae festival 2016 and are excited for 2017.
Special thanks to Nicola and Eric for our opportunity to visit the festival and receiving so many heartful moments.
Big Up and Pull Up 2017!

Written by: Yeke,  Photos by: Yeke, Sarah

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