California Roots Music and Arts Festival

The California Roots Music and Art Festival (Cali Roots) is an American annual music and art festival, featuring reggae, reggae rock, folk, hip hop acts and live painting on-stage. The festival was founded in 2010 by Jeff Monser, an artist and screen printing shop owner. It is held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California which was previously home of the Monterey Pop Festival where Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire in 1967. In its first year, the festival began as a one-day event headlining the Dirty Heads and Tribal Seeds. Today, The California Roots Festival has grown enormously in both size and attendance. It is organized over three full days with more than 11,000 attendees each day.[1] It is described as the largest reggae-rock festival in the world and claims to one of the largest reggae festivals in the United States.[2][3]

Reggae band Rebelution performing live

History

Jeff Monser created the California Roots Music and Arts Festival with the idea of integrating reggae style music with live art experiences. The first versions were small one-day live music events with local attendance and mostly limited to bands drawn from a limited geographic area. Three years later, Dan Sheehan joined as a co-founder of the festival when Monser realized he needed a business partner experienced in both management and production in order for the festival to grow. Sheenan was able to lay the groundwork for managing logistics and securing major reggae acts in order to play at the festival.[4] These changes enabled this one-day music event to evolve into its current three-day form. Together, Monser and Sheenan were able to merge their music and business backgrounds to work together to construct one of the largest reggae and reggae-rock music festival in the world.[3]

Festival Organization

The current festival involves curated lineups of live music, interactive art on stage, and engagement of a variety of events related to the practice and celebration of reggae culture over three days. The festival also works closely with pairs with non-profit organizations to raise funds for causes that align with the brand of Cali Roots. In recent years, the event has attracted more than 13,000 people each day. The California Roots Music and Arts Festival continues to grow rapidly. The festival takes steps to allows for freedom of expression and for fans to engage politically through music.[5] Cali Roots Festival has headlined many notable reggae-like bands and artists over the years, including Atmosphere, Rebelution, Nas, Dirty Heads, and Slightly Stoopid.

References
  1. "Past Line-Ups – California Roots Music & Art Festival 2016". californiarootsfestival.com. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  2. "Cali Roots hits the right chord". Monterey Herald. 2018-05-27. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  3. Joseph, Adam. "How Cali Roots has grown into the world's largest reggae-rock festival in just five years". Monterey County Weekly. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  4. "Dan Sheenan". Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  5. Cooper, Stephen. "Reggae is the heartbeat of the festival". Retrieved 2020-02-13.

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