1995

• The birth of the Reggae Festival Guide magazine. It was 12 pages long and we only distributed 10,000 magazines to California.
• 50th Anniversary of Bob Marley's birth.
• Shaggy won a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album" for Boombastic and is all over commercial television shows including Rosie O'Donnell, David Letterman and Jay Leno as well as Saturday Night Live.

1996

• The power of the World Wide Web was recognized by RFG when we launched our website www.ReggaeFestivalGuide.com in 1996. Renowned by the reggae community, we now receive several hundred hits per day and are at the top of all search engines.
• 30th Anniversary of Haile Selassie's first and only visit to Jamaica.
• Bunny Wailer won a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album" for Hall of Fame - A Tribute to Bob Marley's 50th Anniversary."

1997

• Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers won a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album" for Fallen is Babylon.
• The Abyssinians and the Congos reunite their original bands on stage at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, in Marysville, CA.

1998

• 20th Anniversary of the One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica where Bob Marley called political rivals Michael Manley and Edward Seaga on stage to join hands and promote peace.
• Kenneth "Junior" Byles performs for the first time outside of Jamaica at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in Marysville, CA.
• Sly and Robbie won a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album" for Friends.

1999

• Burning Spear won a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album" for Calling Rastafari.
• 15th Anniversary of reggae as a category in the Grammy Awards of the National Academy of Recording Artists.

2000

• Time magazine chose Bob Marley's album Exodus as the "Best Album of the 20th Century" (and that included all musical genres).
• Bob Marley's "One Love" is the "Anthem of the Millennium" for the BBC's 24-hour world video.
• 20th Anniversary of Reggae Sunsplash in Kingston, JA.
• "Who Am I," by Beenie Man, is the first reggae song to enter the Billboard Chart's Top 10 in its original form.

2001

• Bob Marley was honored with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Grammy Awards, National Academy of Recording Artists.
• After ten years of hard work by Ragga Muffins' Barbara Barabino, Bob Marley was given a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 20th Anniversary of the Ragga Muffin Festival/Bob Marley Day set a new attendance record of 15,000.
• Shaggy becomes the first reggae artist to go the top of the Billboard pop charts in ten years.
• The World of Reggae, featuring Bob Marley museum exhibition opens in Long Beach, CA, thanks to Roger Steffen's dedication.

2002

• 10th Anniversary of the reggae networking organization, Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide (RAW)
• Lee Scratch Perry won a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album" for Jamaican E.T.

2003

• 20th Anniversary of California's Reggae on the River Festival.
• 10th Anniversary of California's Sierra Nevada World Music Festival.
• Sean Paul is the first reggae dancehall artist to have three consecutive top 20 hits in Billboard Charts with his album, Dutty Rock.
• 20th Anniversary of the first reggae band, Black Uhuru, to ever win a Grammy.

2004

• Sean Paul won a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album" for Dutty Rock.
• 10th Anniversary of the Reggae Festival Guide magazine - now 120 pages long and distributed to 100,000 people nationwide.
• This year saw the launch of the weekly Reggae Festival E-Guide, now in its 6th issue, already has 1,500 subscribers. (Subscribe on the website for festival updates, Caribbean recipes, great tips for marketing your band, product and more.)

REGGAE MILESTONES

Take a look back over the last ten years and remember your own personal milestones. Together as a community of livicated fans, artists and promoters, we have worked together to spread the message of reggae across the nation and around the globe - the message of One World Family, Peace and Love. Perhaps this message is more important now than ever.

Some worry that reggae has become too commercial (TV jingles, music videos, etc.) but whatever way we can convert the uninitiated is a good place to start! Eventually they will catch the vibe.

Let's hold a vision of what we want to accomplish over the next 10 years and work to manifest it. We have a lot of love in this reggae community of ours - and it can be very powerful stuff.