Festival Ilha do Reggae
Reggae · Arena Jamaica Brasileira, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil
Reggae — radiola culture
Ilha do Reggae Festival was born in 2025 in São Luís, capital of Maranhão, the city all of Brazil calls the "Jamaica Brasileira" — the Brazilian Jamaica. Its first edition, free and open to all, took place on Saturday, November 22 and Sunday, November 23, 2025 at the Arena Jamaica Brasileira (the Samba Catwalk), during Black Consciousness Month, with some thirty acts a day from 5 p.m.
The festival is produced by the Government of the State of Maranhão, through its State Secretariat of Culture (Secma), in a public-private partnership. Its announcement by Governor Carlos Brandão followed a memorandum of understanding signed in August 2024 with Jamaica's Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, on an official visit to São Luís — an official bridge between Maranhão and Jamaica, built on sustainable tourism and cultural exchange.
On the first edition's bill: legends Burning Spear and Israel Vibration, Ky-Mani Marley, Dezarie, Edson Gomes, Maneva, Ponto de Equilíbrio, Planta e Raiz and the hometown heroes Tribo de Jah — the band that made São Luís a reggae capital since the 1990s. Around the stage: the radiolas, the walls of speakers at the heart of Maranhão's reggae culture, dance groups, crafts and the Feira Moda Reggae fair.
No second edition is dated so far. Festival TV follows announcements from the Government of Maranhão and Secma, and will update this page as soon as a new edition is official.
Watch
Tribo de Jah, São Luís' emblem band, live at Ilha do Reggae Festival 2025 — "Quando São João Chegar", the video picked in Moïse 1er's selection:
Tribo de Jah — "Quando São João Chegar" at Ilha do Reggae Festival (São Luís, 2025)
