SOLD OUT There will be no tickets on the door.

Kicking off a long weekend of events for Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music – and rounding off Windrush 75 celebrations – Leading UK reggae act, Aswad, play live at the Community Hall in Woodbridge.

Aswad, formed in Ladbroke Grove in 1975. Along with contemporaries Matumbi, The Cimmarons and Black Slate, the band was among the first home grown acts to show Caribbean music could successfully flourish in the UK.

The only early British group to record and/ or perform with top Jamaican artists such as Burning Spear, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, they gained national attention in 1976 when their debut release, “Back To Africa,” hit Number 1 in the UK Reggae Charts. “Love Fire,” their popular anthem released in 1981, became part of the reggae canon and has been covered by a host of Jamaican producers (an honour few British bands have been awarded). Their 1983 Island release, Live and Direct, is considered a definitive live reggae album. Catch them live and direct in Woodbridge.

Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music 2023 Key points

– National and local acts celebrate Windrush 75 at events in Suffolk and London from June – August

– Acts playing include Aswad, Jazzie B, A Man Called Adam, Ben Osborne, Caswell, Chris Coco, Jimi K-Tel (Sancho Panza), Nathan X , Ipswich Sound systems Freedom, RastaYard, Turbo and more.

– Anchors Aweigh – the arts trail involving 12 Anchors Mmade by 12 Community Groups. A project created by the inspirational artist Alice Stallard, the community groups who decorated an anchor include Dora Brown, Jetty Lane, Just42, Aspire Black Suffolk, Suffolk ArtLink, Woodbridge Art Club, Woodbridge Memory Café, Woodbridge Prep School, Woodbridge Primary School, Woodbridge Festival and 5th Woodbridge Sea Scout Squirrels.

– Projections on historic Tide Mill and Windrush Art Trail Exhibtion feature the ‘lost’ 1962 Windrush photographs by Howard Grey and contempoary ‘Black Suffolk’ portraits by John Ferguson, across nine venues.

– Caribbean Street Feast By The River

– Reggatta Carnival By the River

– Free Audio Visual and Art workshops throughout summer

– Sturday 26 August Pre Carnival Celebration of sound system culture and London Launch party celebrating 40 years since Aswad recorded Live and Direct at Notting Hill Carnival, in London using unique state of the art 3D L Acoustics sound system at EartH in Hackney.