Taos Music

Auditorium Shores in Austin will hold the 17th annual Austin Reggae Festival benefits the Capital Area Food Bank.

This celebration of spring brings together incredible music, tasty foods, arts and crafts, plus premium people-watching at one of the city's most popular outdoor venues.

New for 2010 is the addition of a third day to the Austin Reggae Festival schedule, as the dub beat begins on Friday afternoon, April 16. Headlining the Austin Reggae Festival on Friday afternoon, April 16 are the Easy Star All Stars. Headlining the Austin Reggae Festival on Sunday afternoon, April 18 are the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars. More headliners and more performers will be announced shortly.

Easy Star All Stars

Headlining the 2010 Austin Reggae Festival on Friday evening, April 16 are the Easy Star All Stars. The feature act of the New York-based Easy Star record label, this band's most recent release is "Lonely Hearts Dub Band" (2009), an amazing song-for-song reggae recreation of the Beatles classic album from 1967. "Lonely Hearts Dub Band" follows similar concept albums "Radiodread" (2006) and "Dub Side of the Moon" (2003), both of which won the band huge crossover attention for audiences not traditionally familiar with this genre. The Easy Star All Stars delivered an incredible performance at the 2007 Austin Reggae Festival, so event organizers are very excited to have this act back on board for the this spring.

Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars

The headline act for Sunday, April 18 are the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars, who make their first-ever appearance at the Austin Reggae Festival. Formed during the brutal civil war that gripped their homeland, this band burst onto the world music scene four years ago with the release of "Living Like A Refugee" (2006). More recently, the Sierra Leone Refugee All Star have been featured on Oprah, CNN, PBS-TV, CBS Sunday Morning, New York Times, NPR and many other international media outlets. A new album is scheduled for release in 2010 -- this album will be produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos (whose has previously worked with Rickie Lee Jones, Michelle Shocked, Susan Tedeschi, and Angelique Kidjo)