IF YOU GO

WHAT: The Soul Rebel Festival is a annual grass roots Reggae Afro Pop music festival

WHEN: This Saturday, July 12, from noon to dusk

WHERE: At Guercio Field, Boulder Canyon Dr. and East St., near the Barker Resorvoir, next to the Teen Center in Nederland

HOW MUCH: $20. The Festival benefits the Black Biomedical Research Movement, a tribute to Wachen Vieira, who was an African Immigrant murdered in Boulder on July 26, 2002, and in honor of Fazal Prendergast, the legendary Reggae studio musician and founder of The Yellow Wall Dub Squad, who passed in a fatal car accident on April 1, 2005.

ON THE WEB: www.interfold.com/ujama/SoulRebelFestival.html

LIVE PERFORMANCES

Sister Carol President Brown The Yellow Wall Dub Squad Stevie Culture Itawe Ms. Banks Canon & The Lion of Judah Roots & Fire Jubal & The Rude Boys Blood Preshah, and more

"One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain."

-- Bob Marley

O ne good thing about this weekend, according to Tanzanian-born, Kenyan-raised Robert Oyugi, is the 7th Annual Soul Rebel Festival, taking place "up in" Nederland, at Guercio Field by Barker Reservoir, from noon till dusk. And, when it hits, Oyugi says, you will be glad it did.

Many of the dozen or so acts scheduled to perform Saturday, originally hail from Jamaica or the Virgin Islands, some of them having had the pleasure to play with Marley himself. Grammy-nominee Sister Carol, President Brown and Stevie Culture, a musician whose career started when he was handed a microphone at a party, are all Jamaican natives. The Yellow Dub Squad, Itawe, Ms. Banks and others, will also be playing, what Oyugi describes, as music that represents true reggae: music that is at-once "melodic, rhythmic and pulsating."

Oyugi, founder of the Festival and publisher of Ujama News magazine, started his quest to promote the festival after he started Soul Rebel Night at the since-closed Soma Club in Boulder seven years ago. Now called Reggae Night, and held every week at the Redfish in downtown Boulder, its original intent was to create a weekly reggae and Afro-pop night where the local talent, with an occasional international act, could play their own music.

The intent played out so well, Oyugi decided he wanted to do a little more. He now hosts the once-a-year festival where the acts that played at Reggae Night could play to a larger audience in an outdoor setting that further embraced the true reggae vibe.

In 2002, a friend of Oyugi's, Wachen Kimbundu Viera, was tragically murdered in Boulder by a man acquitted, due to insanity. As a tribute to Viera, the festival has always been presented in honor of him and his life. Viera was scheduled to perform in 2002, but never got the chance.

In addition to honoring Viera, the Soul Rebel Festival also now honors Fazal Prendergast, a founding member of the Yellow Wall Dub Squad, who, like Viera, died a tragic death, in a car accident in 2005. It also benefits the Black Bio-Medical Research Movement, which it has done since 2002.

"You're gonna expect to come enjoy some powerful messages through reggae music this weekend," Oyugi says. "Everybody loves music. It relieves stress from the daily grind. The music is always there to remove that daily grind. It's very spiritual and uplifiting."

One can expect exactly that