Don Carlos · Reggae Lake Festival, Amsterdam · 2025

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Live video · Reggae · 2020s

Don Carlos — Reggae Lake Festival, Amsterdam, 2025

Why this recording

At Reggae Lake Festival 2025, the camera belongs to Reggae Live Concerts, an independent crew that has followed Benelux reggae festivals for several seasons, from Reggae Geel and Rastaplas to Reggae Rotterdam and Reggae Sundance. The 43-minute film, shot and edited in 4K by the same team, uses live sound mastered by Frits Panday. It captures, outdoors on a Dutch stage, a Jamaican roots veteran still touring more than fifty years after Black Uhuru began.

Simon Janvier, live-sound professional and editor of the catalogue

4K footage of roots-reggae legend Don Carlos at the Reggae Lake Festival, in Amsterdam’s Gaasperpark (Netherlands). A co-founder of the legendary group Black Uhuru in 1972, Jamaican singer Don Carlos has since pursued a respected solo career, driven by an unmistakable voice and a conscious roots-reggae repertoire. On the main stage of the Dutch festival, backed by his live band, he delivers a roots-reggae set before a festival crowd — deep riddims, round basslines and spiritual messages. Filmed and mixed by the Reggae Live Concerts team (live sound mastered by Frits Panday), this polished recording conveys all the warmth of an open-air reggae concert. Alongside Michael Rose and Garth Dennis, Don Carlos helped shape the sound of Black Uhuru in the 1970s before stepping out on his own with enduring anthems such as “Laser Beam” and “Just a Passing Glance”. Decades later, his hypnotic delivery and message of unity still command festival stages across Europe. A live filmed concert perfect for lovers of roots reggae, sound system culture and Jamaican music. (As the detailed setlist for this concert is not reliably documented, it is not reproduced here.)

Personnel & credits

  • Don Carlos — vocals
  • Frits Panday — live sound mastering