Reggaeville Easter Special 2024: Yaksta, Eek-A-Mouse and Anthony B Carry Berlin and Hamburg

The 2024 Reggaeville Easter Special stretched across six shows, with Berlin and Hamburg delivering a mix of roots pressure, dancehall energy and last-minute festival drama. Yaksta, Eek-A-Mouse and Anthony B supplied some of the tour’s strongest moments.

The 2024 Reggaeville Easter Special had to work around the kind of travel trouble that can unsettle a touring bill, but the music held its ground. The expanded run covered six shows, including a first stop in Cologne, and opened with a Berlin performance shaped by urgency and release. Yaksta nearly missed the date after a highway accident, yet still reached the stage and performed with the edge of an artist refusing to let circumstances write the night. His set became one of the clearest reminders that reggae’s resilience is not just a lyric—it is often part of the job.

Yaksta’s Berlin appearance found its biggest singalong in “Jet Black,” delivered over the Ginger Riddim. The Jamaican vocalist then reached back to Peter Tosh with a version of “Johnny Be Good,” keeping the room moving while showing how naturally his modern dancehall presence can sit beside a roots classic. There was no need to smooth out the rough edges of the situation; the delayed arrival and near miss became part of the performance’s meaning. He made it to the microphone, took command, and turned a difficult journey into a charged opening statement for the tour.

Hamburg brought a different kind of electricity when eek-A-Mouse took the stage after a slight delay. The veteran appeared in good form, working his familiar vocal phrases and loose, playful delivery through “Wa-Do-Dem” and “Sensee Party.” The crowd responded to the nostalgia, but the set did not feel like a museum piece. After speaking about Germany’s coming cannabis decriminalization, he pulled local activist Teresa into an impromptu dance, moved into the audience and freestyled with visitors. Those unscripted exchanges gave the performance its real spark and kept the legend’s eccentric spirit intact.

Anthony B supplied the tour’s most direct roots-and-consciousness charge, opening with “Freedom Fighter” before moving through “Good Life” and “Waterpumpee.” His message stayed fixed on love, unity and endurance, but the delivery was physical rather than purely declarative. When he urged the Berlin crowd to feel the love, the response came through movement as much as applause. House of Riddim backed him with a firm live groove, giving the songs room to breathe and preserving the band-led weight that can disappear when festival sets lean too heavily on tracks and quick transitions.

The bill also had to absorb a change when Dub Inc. could not appear, with Australia’s Dub FX and Mr. Woodnote stepping in instead. Their combination of beatboxing, looping and instrumental work shifted the room’s texture without breaking its momentum. “Fake Paradise” showed how much ground the pair could cover, while a surprise eek-A-Mouse appearance—adding his bidibeng style to the moment—made the crossover feel genuinely spontaneous. Across Berlin and Hamburg, delays, travel problems and lineup changes never fully disappeared, but neither did the central feeling: a touring reggae crowd finding reasons to move together.

Team Reggaeville’s photographs preserved the scenes that defined the 2024 edition: Yaksta pushing through adversity, eek-A-Mouse turning audience contact into performance, and crowds sharing the release that live reggae is built to create. The weekend was not memorable because everything ran cleanly. It stood out because the artists and audiences absorbed the disruptions and kept the energy circulating. Between contemporary dancehall, veteran roots voices and improvised collaboration, the Easter Special showed how much character can emerge when a festival leaves room for the unexpected.

Reggaeville Easter SpecialYakstaEek-A-Mouse