All photos by Mara Sofferin.
Anguilla is best known as the exclusive tiny island where moguls like Jay-Z and Michael Jordan go to excape the hardships of celebrity life, but it’s also the home of Moonsplash, the Western hemisphere’s full moon party that you’ve probably never heard of—which is unfortunate because it is way better than Koh Phangan’s train wreck of a party. Firstly, there is no pointless neon body paint or buckets of diabetes-inducing mixed drinks. Secondly, there is a much lower risk of accidentally sleeping with someone who will latterly ask you to pay for it. Thirdly, it is music festival that's still actually about music.As the oldest independent music festival in the Caribbean, Moonsplash runs three straight days from dusk ’til dawn every April, and it’s super intimate, only offering around 500 tickets each year. Nowhere else can you get this up close and personal with reggae legends—in the past 25 years it has welcomed every major reggae act around: Rita Marley, The Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, Buju Banton, Tarrus Riley, Culture, Marcia Griffith, Chronixx, the list goes on. And then there was that time when John Mayer, Nas, and Q-Tip showed up.It’s not only one of the world’s best beach parties, it’s also the most chill. It takes place in the Dune Preserve, which was recently rated by CNN as the world’s best beach bar. During the festival it plays the role of Caribbean Black Rock City and is referred to as ‘Planet Dune’ with people flying and yachting in from around the world to camp out on Rendezvous Bay and spend their days swimming in the Caribbean Sea and sipping Duneshine (overproof rum punch), and their nights being serenaded by reggae gods in near private performances.The Dune is straight out of Robinson Crusoe, but out of an alternate unreleased edition where Crusoe smokes a joint before he starts setting up shop and while gathering driftwood and palm fronds to start building a civilization he just says, “Fuck my colonial ambitions, I’m just going to build the best treehouse EVER and chill here making music for the rest of my life (and make sure those damn cannibals don’t get a hold of my weed because it would really suck if they got the munchies).”The man, the myth, the legend: Cat Coore of Third World.
A music festival here? Yes please.Warming up spliff for Jah Cure.
Mama Wanna a.k.a. Viagra in a bottle, so says the bartender at Elvis's of his house made blend of rums and male performance enhancing plants.Bankie Banx in his tree house castle - he built the Dune Preserve with his own two hands.The Dune and Moonsplash were both started by Bankie Banx, who is essentially the West Indian Sixto Rodriguez. Except he never disappeared into the depths of Detroit, he just lays low at the Dune and his followers always know where to find him. Bankie burst onto the Caribbean music scene in the late 70s, his distinctive raspy baritone voice garnering a cult following in the West Indies, Europe, and North America. In the late 80s he moved to NYC and worked with musicians including Bob Dylan, Robert Manos, and Robert Mansfield (which explains why The Dune channels 1960s Greenwich Village).However, Banx was arrested in the early 90s in Barbados for the possession of one joint and was forbidden from leaving Anguilla for the better part of 11 years. Determined not to have his musical career stolen from him, it was during this time he built the Dune Preserve and established the Moonsplash Music Festival along with American steel-guitarist Sheriff Bob Saidenberg. He finally returned to the US in 2005 to tour, but his decade old marijuana arrest was still used against him and he decided to return to Anguilla and continue keeping Moonsplash and Anguilla’s music scene alive and well.Anguillians are the best.Day three at The Dune Preserve.Forget food trucks with nasty poutine…on Anguilla it's fresh caught lobster tail and crayfish all day long.Omari Banx (Bankie's son) show at Da'Vida's beach bar on Crocus Bay.Caribbean time: Third World finally went on at 3 AM.
This past week was the 25th anniversary of Moonsplash, so the headliners included reggae royalty: Freddie McGregor, Third World, Jah Cure, Bankie Banx as well as pro cricket-player turned crooner Omari Banks and Boston-based up-and-comer Mighty Mystic.So go book your tickets for next year before they sell out and you’re stuck going to Coachella.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Mama Wanna a.k.a. Viagra in a bottle, so says the bartender at Elvis's of his house made blend of rums and male performance enhancing plants.Bankie Banx in his tree house castle - he built the Dune Preserve with his own two hands.The Dune and Moonsplash were both started by Bankie Banx, who is essentially the West Indian Sixto Rodriguez. Except he never disappeared into the depths of Detroit, he just lays low at the Dune and his followers always know where to find him. Bankie burst onto the Caribbean music scene in the late 70s, his distinctive raspy baritone voice garnering a cult following in the West Indies, Europe, and North America. In the late 80s he moved to NYC and worked with musicians including Bob Dylan, Robert Manos, and Robert Mansfield (which explains why The Dune channels 1960s Greenwich Village).However, Banx was arrested in the early 90s in Barbados for the possession of one joint and was forbidden from leaving Anguilla for the better part of 11 years. Determined not to have his musical career stolen from him, it was during this time he built the Dune Preserve and established the Moonsplash Music Festival along with American steel-guitarist Sheriff Bob Saidenberg. He finally returned to the US in 2005 to tour, but his decade old marijuana arrest was still used against him and he decided to return to Anguilla and continue keeping Moonsplash and Anguilla’s music scene alive and well.
Advertisement