Get ready to skank the summer away!
The always highly anticipated Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival, or Skafest, has announced their lineup for this summer’s lineup, which includes three massive headliners.
This year will be the 26th Skafest and will take place primarily down in Victoria’s Inner Harbour, featuring numerous free-to-attend shows during the day with paid shows taking place through the evening at a few different venues.
The biggest part of the lineup announcement is that Skafest secured the one and only Propaghandi as one of the headliners.
Propaghandi are one of the most respected and revered punk bands in Canada and will be the first “pure punk” bands to headline the festival.
The Winnipeg-based band are known for their injecting their lyricism with intensely political rhetoric and their blending of melodic punk with thrash metal.
However, Propaghandi wasn’t always the thrash band it is today, when they started out they were more of a skate-punk band and even have a song from their first album called “Ska Sucks.”
Despite this, they will surely put on a show to remember, with moshpits, stagediving and a whole lot of energy.
Propaghandi hasn’t played in Victoria since they performed to a sold-out Sugar (now Capital Ballroom) back in February, 2015.
Another big headliner coming to perform Skafest is The Pharcyde.
The Pharcyde are a hip-hop group formed in California back in 1989 and have been an incredibly influential part of the evolution of east coast hip-hop.
Their debut album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, which was released in 1992, was especially highly acclaimed and is still to this day cited as one of the greatest albums in alternative hip-hop.
Two members, Fatlip and Slimkid3, left the group in the 90s, but have since returned and The Pharcyde has been touring the 30-year anniversary of Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde since 2022.
The third big headliner announced by Skafest is Jakobs Castle.
Jakobs Castle is headed up by Jakob Nowell, the son of the legendary Brad Nowell who was the frontman of Sublime, one of the most celebrated bands of the 90s.
Jakob is now the lead singer of Sublime, but Jakobs Castle is his own project. According to Skafest, Jakob’s Castle will be performing some of Sublime’s hits throughout their set.
Other notable acts are iLLScarlett and GrimSkunk who are both Canadian legends, along with Save Ferris, Montebong Turbulence, Sister Nancy and Long Beach Dub Allstars.
The festival will take place between June 18th and 22nd this year and all shows except for a club concert on Thursday will be open to all ages.
Full fest passes are now on sale through VictoriaSka & Reggae Festival’s website, then individual show tickets will go on sale on Friday, February 28th.
