Last weekend in Banatski Sokolac came off in spirit of good music, dancing, positive energy… Several thousand people gathered in this village in Serbia and the backyard of elementary school was too small for all the people who love rock music. All participants - Atomsko skloniste, Van Gogh, Irina & Storm, Del Arno band, Ras Abraham & The Irie Vibes and others shared their positive energy with the audience and heated up the atmosphere.

Surely the main event of the Festival was the ceremony of unveiling of the statue of Bob Marley, the first to be erected in Europe.

Before the ceremony our guest from Jamaica – Ras Abraham & The Irie Vibes gave memorable performance. They were warmly welcomed by the audience of more than 10.000 people who were dancing and applauding during performance. Ras Abraham and the band showed a lot of spontaneity and passion for an explosive and rousing live show. The show is driven by the Grooves typical for reggae, full power, energy and feeling echoed through Banat plain. These veterans of the reggae music, who experienced playing with Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, and Ginger Baker, were additionally motivated for this occasion. Ras Abraham celebrated his first success in the 70’s first with the legendary Slickers, then with the Survivors and as a solo artist. He played with the Wailers, Peter Tosh or also Sly Dunbar. In the end of the 80’s he settled in Europe with The Irie Vibes.

The unveiling ceremony started with the scenes from Bob Marley’s life that reminded us once more about his beliefs, music and mission. The organizers read special message from the Minister of Information, Youth and Culture of Jamaica.  “It is with great pleasure to be informed that a statue of a most beloved son of Jamaica, the Honorable Bob Marley, will be erected and unveiled at the Festival in Serbia.”, the message said. (Complete text of the message can be found here .) The ceremony made a step forward in bringing two similar countries – Jamaica and Serbia closer together.

At the same time we gave tribute and honor to this righteous humanist, to this great musician who was through his verses promoting nonviolent – music fight for equal rights for all people, to this personality, which has succeeded to rise from the Jamaica ghetto in worlds music elite, to the man whom the United Nations awarded a medal for Third countries peace. The Statue will constantly remind us to universal values.

And then, the Statue of Bob Marley was unveiled by Balkan musicians. On the pedestal below the statue stands the encryption in Serbian:

Bob Marley

Fighter for freedom with a guitar in his hand.

There were flashes, cameras, thousands of people wanted to get chance to be photographed with the statue….  The fireworks ended this part of the evening.