Photos by Jason Zucker—
This past Wednesday night, audiences in Brooklyn were treated to the first ever reggae/Caribbean music concert at the borough’s newest venue, the Barclays Center. In the two months since it opened near downtown Brooklyn, the NBA-sized arena has already hosted shows by Jay-Z, Barbra Streisand and the Rolling Stones but this event had its own unique gravitas. With its vast population of Jamaicans and other West Indians, Brooklyn has been the home of live reggae music in the U.S. for years, but, until now, has never had a venue large enough for shows of this size and scope.
Wednesday night’s event, dubbed Sounds of Reggae, brought Shaggy, Maxi Priest, Ali Campbell’s UB40 and Beres Hammond—who performed one night after his debut US TV appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (watch the LargeUp TV episode featuring Beres and the Roots at Fallon here)—together for one big show, right into the heart of Brooklyn. Scroll through to see LargeUp’s photos documenting some of the evening’s many highlights.