Victoria Ska Festival A.K.A. the festival of the people

Victoria Ska Festival is the largest and longest running festival of its kind in North America.  Victoria BC Ska Society (VBCSS) that produces the festival, is a not- for-profit cultural organization that uses ska, reggae and other related genres to entertain, educate and unite audiences and artists nationally and abroad.  For the past fifteen years Ska Fest has been committed to providing free concerts and workshops throughout the festival in an effort to entertain, educate and unite artists and audiences. International artists from Africa, Colombia, Mexico, Israel, Jamaica and various other countries perform with regional and national touring bands at outdoor and indoor venues. The free festival workshops have provided memorable experiences for artists and fans and has become an important educational tool for audiences to discover the musical and cultural origins of ska and its related genres.

Entertain

• Every year the VBCSS works tirelessly to bring you the perfect mix of bands blending ska, reggae, dub, punk, hip hop and world beat.

• Roughly half of the Victoria Ska Festival's programming is presented for free.

• Past artists include Toots and the Maytals, Fishbone, Barrington Levy & Detour, Shaggy, Mos Def, Ken Boothe, and many, many more.

Educate

• Among the most important aspects of the festival is its workshops. These workshops are as varied as the artists the festival presents.  Artists such as Victor Rice, Ken Boothe, Lynval Golding of The Specials and countless others have participated in this aspect of the festival sharing their experiences and knowledge of ska, reggae and more to the masses.  As these sessions are now recorded, the workshops can be used as a resource for anyone that wants to learn after they are done live

Unite

• Victoria Ska Festival books tours for international and regional bands for the festival and through the year.

• Promotes and sponsors other community organizations that are doing projects that are in line with our mandate

• Victoria BC Ska Society supported the Alpha Boys School in Jamaica in 2012 by collecting thousands of dollars worth of used instruments, sports equipment and cash donations that were sent to the school. This project was created to give back to the school that raised so many of the ska, rocksteady and reggae legends that have made our festival possible.

• VBCSS has an active membership that are the backbone of the festival and the organization itself. Every year we work to engage the membership to make them a part of the festival and keep the fire strong for the music in our region. 

Victoria Ska Festival has successfully survived for 15 years and counting! Ska is stronger than just a musical trend. Ska music is the grandfather of so much amazing music and its artists always give everyone a good time and bring people together. When we started this we never anticipated that we would have made it this far.  We are now asking for the people's support once again through this campaign because we want to ensure that we can maintain the depth and quality of the free programming the Victoria Ska Festival offers. This campaign runs until Wednesday, December 3, 2014 will also help spread awareness about the Victoria Ska Festival. We want you to give us your ideas about your “dream Ska Fest” AND we want you to choose from the exciting list of prize packages.

What We Need & What You Get

We have decided to set the crowd funding campaign goal at $10,000 although we hope to raise more. The funding raised through this campaign will:

-Provide funds to book international and regional bands on our free festival programs.

-Help to maintain our larger stage and sound at Ship Point Inner Harbour (our main outdoor festival venue).

-Provide funds to further develop the artistic aspects of Ship Point and other festival sites through our Rocksteady Collective (Visual artists in the community that express their love for Ska Fest through creating visual arts and multimedia).  

Many of you will be thankful that we have created this campaign just so you can get access to these prizes we have never offered up to now. The private meet and greet with The Slackers following their Victoria show on October 23, 2014 at Upstairs Cabaret & our Mad Caddies & The Aggrolites with guests concerts in Vancouver and Victoria (January 25th & 27th, 2015) are especially exciting. We are also excited to introduce a new outdoor property in Sooke BC that we can provide our supporters with an unforgettable ska/reggae experience. This crowdfunding finale in May 2015 will be the perfect event to get us excited for our 16th Annual Ska Festival in July 2015.

The Impact

To have a Ska Festival in Canada (on an Island no less) that is international in scope and that touches as many people as it does is amazing in and of itself. The fact that it comes together every year is almost a miracle.  Victoria Ska Festival unites audiences and artists around the world with Canada and has become an event ska and reggae lovers all over the world look forward to. Those that first attended the festival in its infant years are now bringing their kids and the teenagers that enjoyed it for the first time in the early 2000s now help with organizing the event.  

This campaign is crucial for establishing more consistent financial stability for the Victoria Ska Festival's free components. The free concerts and workshops allow us to showcase artists that audiences may not have been exposed and provides a quality forum for them to be presented.