Palm Beach Reggae Music and Arts Festival Debuts in Delray Beach in 2026

Inner Circle, the Jamaican reggae band formed in Kingston in 1968 known globally as the Bad Boys of Reggae, brought their Grammy-winning catalog to Old School Square in Delray Beach last weekend as the headlining act of the inaugural Palm Beach Reggae Music and Arts Festival, the first multi-day event of its kind to hit Palm Beach County.

The Palm Beach Reggae Music and Arts Festival ran as a vibrant, multicultural, multimedia event at Old School Square in Downtown Delray Beach, featuring live music, film screenings, and visual arts that showcased the evolution and global influence of reggae music and culture. The three-day program covered March 20 through 22, using two distinct spaces on the Old School Square grounds: the outdoor Amphitheater for Saturday's concert and the Vintage Gymnasium for the documentary film screenings on Friday and Sunday nights.

The festival was a collaboration among Old School Square, the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum, and Bigg Zound Productions, owned and operated by Ian Lewis of Inner Circle. It was directed and coordinated by Lloyd Stanbury, a Jamaican entertainment attorney, music business consultant, and Palm Beach County resident. Stanbury framed the geography as no accident: "South Florida is home to Bob Marley's widow, Rita Marley, and several of his children and grandchildren," he said. "Palm Beach County is also home to several pioneers who helped shape reggae's global reach, making it a fitting home for this festival."

Saturday's concert at the Amphitheater served as the festival's centerpiece. The showcase featured live reggae with performances by four established bands from Jamaica, Latin America, and the USA. Inner Circle are best known for the classics "Sweat (A La La La La Long)" and "Bad Boys," the latter well known as the opening theme to the American TV show Cops and the theme song of the Bad Boys franchise. Joining them on the bill were The Resolvers, Xperimento, Yvad and Legal Roots, and DJ/MC Lance-O of Kulcha Shok. The Resolvers brought their South Florida-rooted big band reggae sound to a lineup that stretched geographically from Jamaica and Latin America to the U.S. mainland.

The festival opened Friday, March 20, with a film program just as considered as the concert itself. Opening night featured filmmaker Peter Webber's 2019 music documentary "Inna de Yard: The Soul of Jamaica," which spotlights reggae musicians in Kingston, Jamaica. Sunday closed the weekend with the screening of the award-winning film "Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul" by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist Andrew Munger, directed by Graeme Mathieson, and starring Jay Douglas. Both screenings took place inside the Old School Square Vintage Gymnasium.

Beyond the stage and screen, the three days offered authentic reggae culture with live music, films, visual arts, and Caribbean cuisine. Food trucks providing Jamaican and Caribbean flavors shared the grounds with artisan craft vendors and curated visual art exhibitions celebrating reggae culture.

Both Spady and the reggae festival organizers were recipients of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County's Bright Ideas Sponsorship, a program funded by the Tourist Development Council to support the growth of the county's cultural sector by supporting unique cultural offerings from both the public and private sector. A portion of all proceeds from the festival went to the Miami-based nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission to support the rebuilding of Jamaican communities devastated by Hurricane Melissa.

Stanbury said the festival aims to be a long-lasting "community building" tool for a county that, by the organizers' own account, had no multi-day reggae festival before this one. With Ian Lewis of Inner Circle directly tied to the production infrastructure and Stanbury's international network behind the curation, the inaugural edition set a high bar for whatever comes next at 51 N Swinton Ave.