Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival

The Washington D.C. band SOJA is among the top-drawing reggae bands in the nation. Here it is in Tahoe Onstage. Images by Tim Parsons

Dancing — Monica Hedden, left, and Amaranta Colindres of Fairfiled, Calif., dance to the reggae sounds.

Salmon's fish sticks — Patrick Salmon is all fish sticks and hair whips for Tomorrows Bad Seeds.

Bad Seed rises — Sean Chapman of Tomorrows Bad Seeds goes to great lengths at the Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival.

Turntable — The live Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival even has a turntable. Tahoe Onstage image by Chris Oliver

Tyler Lewis of South Lake Tahoe is dressed up for his photo debut in Tahoe Onstage.

Stick Figure drew upon its musicianship to put on an impressive performance.

Reggae vendor — The Organic Ice crew chills for our camera. From left to right: Traci Hartless, Adrienne Bush, (Owner), Tiger Lamar, Elisha Willes

Alpha Blondy arrives — Alpha Blondy band members exit a bus as they arrive at MontBleu. The band missed its scheduled flight from Denver to Reno but arrived in time to play a shortened set.

Alpha Blondy onstage in Tahoe for the first time.

Singers — Backup harmonies come with front-stage dance moves for Alpha Blondy.

A photographer scales the front of the stage to expose Alpha Blondy.

Irie Crowd — The 2-year-old turf in the MontBleu Amphitheater is in excellent condition. Tahoe Onstage image by Chris Oliver

The front row is filled with bubbly girls.

SOJA bubble — A fan in a SOJA shirt takes her eyes off the stage for a moment.

Dread men — Jacob Hemphill and Bobby Lee of SOJA.

Bubble moment — The bubble looks so real you can almost touch it.

Trumpet — The sun is down when SOJA and trumpet player Rafael Rodriguez keep things hot.

Jacob Hamphill — Maybe it’s easy to grow dreadlocks when your name is Hemphill?

Do you see the light? An irie moment in the crowd.

Snapshot from SOJA — Onstage behind the band, SOJA’s Jacob Hemphill takes a photograph.

An estimated 2,700 concertgoers danced on the grass under a sunny blue sky at the June 29 Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival. SOJA, Alpha Blondy, Stick Figure, Passafire, Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds, Island of Black and White and J Ras and Squarefield Massive were onstage at the second annual event, the kickoff to the MontBleu Summer Concert Series.

ABOUT Tim Parsons

Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.

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Tim Parsons
June 30, 2013
3:23 pm