The Coney Island Reggae on the Boardwalk Series is a continuation of the “reggae beach party”/”Coney Island soundsystem” events conceived and launched in 2010 by Carter Van Pelt of WKCR’s “Eastern Standard Time” Jamaican music program. Carter Van Pelt has been documenting Jamaican popular music as a writer, radio broadcaster, and archivist since the early 1990s.
This project will fund free, daylong weekend events (July 27 and August 25 featuring reggae selectors playing through a “yard-style” soundsystem heard over a large outdoor area – in this case the historic boardwalk at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, at West 21st Street near the old Child’s Restaurant building. In its heyday, Jamaican popular music was almost entirely produced to be heard at public dances through large public soundsystems. These events celebrate an important cultural context specific to reggae that is not widely understood in the digital music era.
As free events, Coney Island Reggae has introduced new listeners to Jamaican popular music (aka, rock steady, reggae, dancehall, dub, etc.) and continues to give music lovers familiar (or not familiar) with reggae a more authentic context for hearing it.
By its location in Brooklyn, NY, the events benefit from the participation of a large community of reggae music lovers integrally involved with the music culture as selectors, singers, producers, and emcees.
Most importantly, these are family-friendly events and everyone is welcome to attend and share in a multicultural community experience only possible in a place like Brooklyn.
