Popcaan’s Unruly Fest Heads To London
Popcaan’s Unruly Fest will be heading to London on November 30, 2023 for its first international staging.
The Foreign Love deejay made the announcement on Saturday (April 29), directing fans to register for exclusive presale access on Ticketmaster.
The news of the London staging, dubbed “Popcaan and Friends” comes almost a month after he announced the return of the festival to his home parish of St. Thomas this December.
Poppy appears to be delivering on a promise he made during a 2022 interview with Clash Magazine where he hinted that he would be taking “Unruly Fest to London for the very first time.”
In the UK magazine’s July 6, 2022 spread, Popcaan, whose real name is Andrae Sutherland, gave insight into the first staging of the festival outside of Jamaica.
“With an album incoming, the Jamaican icon talks about his inspirations, and his processes; reflecting on grief, and his need to engage, Popcaan shares his full story – and reveals a little about what’s to come,” the edition’s synopsis read in part.
“Retaining a deep love for British music, he shouts out UK drill, muses on diasporic communications, and exclusively reveals that he’s taking Unruly Fest to London for the very first time.”
The first staging of Unruly Fest was held in December 2018 at Goodyear Oval in St Thomas. It was a completely sold-out event, which saw thousands of local and international fans turn up to see the deejay, special guests Drake and Tory Lanez, and other entertainers live.
“This is a St Thomas product. I’m so proud of St Thomas tonight. This is my hometown, so whatever me get, me share it with my hometown,” Popcaan had told the crowd at the event’s second staging in 2019.
However, during a Twitter rant in 2021, after he was slapped with several traffic violations, Popcaan threatened to move the festival from St. Thomas, as he felt cops in the parish were making him a target.
London is known to be one of the largest consumers of Reggae and Dancehall in the diaspora. It is therefore expected that the news sat well with scores of ‘Unruly’ supporters.
“Dis nah b#%boclart miss me,”@ eskomusic1 commented.
“I need to be there,” @jahmicahhenry simply said.
“🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 dat is it” dj_mariwana_flames added.
Popcaan recently hailed Protoje for the successful staging of the Lost In Time Festival in February, and in his response, Proto said he was simply following the blueprint of Unruly Fest.