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Rating: June 30, 2006, Italy secures a spot in the World Cup semifinals by beating Ukraine 3 to 0. Yet in Italy, on the same day, more than 2,000 people were raising Jamaican flags hidden in the moat of the Castle of Otranto. The highly anticipated Buju Banton concert organized by Alta Fedeltà Produzioni for the sixth edition of the Salento Summer Festival gathered not only quite a squad of cops but also a crowd of reggae music fans for the umpteenth twinning between Salento culture and Rastafari culture. In the castle's moat, of considerable size, an unconventional evening was celebrated through the spiritual music of 100% pure reggae, sung by Buju Banton and co., one of the best reggae advocates of Bob Marley. Spiritual, fun, danceable, and enjoyable sound blasted through excellent amplifications, but let's proceed in order.
My friends and I set off tipsy in the car, singing at the top of our lungs the songs from the latest Sud Sound System live album. In Otranto, there was a dry and muggy sirocco wind. Paying close attention to our friendly undercover cops, we began to craft trumpets, flutes, clarinets, and many other wind instruments amid the first wave of the audience already largely made up of black people and rastas. A big screen showed the second half of the match, and only after its good end, we began to position ourselves in front of the barriers, under an awful heat. Boys, girls, Africans, and Rastafarians, some new cops, then punks with dogs, and why not, even adults, danced for 2 hours if not more, to the beats playing in the background before the concert. In two hours, besides smoking, I started to take some pictures of the stage, the lights, the sound systems, the crowd, the chicks that were as abundant as dead leaves in autumn, the annoying cops, and our stoned friends when the batteries began to show signs of weakness. Hot, hot and hot, droplets of sweat like raindrops dripped, and smoky clouds rose from every corner when in came the female gospel trio, three great voluptuous black women dressed in tight outfits singing to the dub rhythms with their powerful expressive voices. Only when the great Buju takes the stage, with a surprising light effect, does the camera turn off, leaving me to join in and mosh to the rhythm like the rest of the frenzied crowd. Buju jumps like a mouse, and his knees reach his face, the audience over time becomes music, with reggae it's fine if you know the songs, but if not, it doesn't matter because you become the reggae yourself, ignoring the green fuel for which the fight continues eternally, you don't stop and can't stop, especially when in front of you, tall and with dreads, Buju sings and shines, repeatedly displaying his package. Buju, 33 years old, has quite a few criminal records and is always under the watchful eye of the defenders of homosexual movements, as our homophobe expresses extremist sexual opinions, lashing out at those who do not respect the naturalness of relationships, not for a simple matter of racism but due to a total belief in Rastafari religion that absolutely prevents violence against nature. The Jamaican's unmistakable style differs from other reggae artists due to his spectacular incisive and powerful vocal timbre, profoundly expressive and hoarse.
The songs were from "Friends For Life", "Unchained Spirit" and "Untold Stories", but other songs by various international reggae artists were also performed. In short, a great evening in Otranto, a dive into Jamaican culture, and at the end of the concert, as the relaxed crowd peacefully puffed away, a horde of Smurfs armed with batons stormed in, making sure that in three seconds everyone was out of the moat. The evening concluded with an unfortunate episode of racism by a drunk woman who was insulting all the Afro-fans present that evening in a manner like "Open Square - big show".
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