Day 3 – Sunday at Summerjam delivered another unforgettable mix of reggae, dancehall, and HipHop, packed with standout performances, special moments, and plenty of festival magic.

In this recap, we’ve rounded up the best photo moments, video highlights, exclusive backstage content from the final day of the festival as well as a conclusion summerizing our impressions of the entire weekend.

This time the Surinamese singer Samora was our guest reporter in the ”artist interviews artist” segment. Dive in and relive everything that made the final day at Summerjam so special.

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Sun­rise Con­cert — Patrice

Human Dynamo — Samo­ra

French Con­nec­tion – Biga*Ranx

Gong I – Julian Mar­ley

Gong II – Ky-Mani Mar­ley

Shood­il­ley-wad­dliley-did­dley-did­dley, whoa-oh – Bar­ring­ton Levy

Grat­i­tude is a Must – Orig­i­nal Kof­fee

The Liv­ing Leg­end – Burn­ing Spear

The Peo­ple of Sum­mer­jam

A Fes­ti­val Look­ing to the Future – A Con­clu­sion

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Sunrise Concert – Patrice

His name was­n’t on the line-up, but for days a rumour had been mak­ing the rounds around the camp­site: Patrice was said to be play­ing one of his famous Sun­rise Con­certs on Sun­day morning—not on the fes­ti­val grounds, but from a boat on the lake for the campers.

The per­for­mance last­ed only around 20 min­utes and, strict­ly speak­ing, it was­n’t a real Sun­rise Con­cert, since the sun is already high in the sky by the time the first note rang out. But chances are hard­ly any­one would have noticed if Patrice had actu­al­ly start­ed play­ing at 5:30 a.m. After a long night of par­ty­ing, most peo­ple would prob­a­bly still have been fast asleep in their tents.

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Photos by Lisa Ramacher (@lisaramacher):

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Human Dynamo – Samora

When the ”Suri­name Girl” opened the Red Stage at Sum­mer­jam 2026 on Sun­day, she quick­ly trans­formed the ear­ly after­noon slot into a vibrant cel­e­bra­tion of mod­ern reg­gae and pos­i­tive ener­gy. With her pow­er­ful vocals, infec­tious melodies and unde­ni­able stage pres­ence she set the vibe for the rest of the day, before she took over riddim.world with the ”Artist inter­views Artist” sec­tion.

Mov­ing effort­less­ly between reg­gae, dance­hall and pop influ­ences, Samo­ra show­cased why she belongs to the new gen­er­a­tion of artists push­ing the genre for­ward. Whether inter­act­ing with her six piece band includ­ing live horns, the crowd or dher dancers, she always kept the ener­gy lev­el high.

Photos by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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French Connection – Biga*Ranx

Biga*Ranx trans­formed the fes­ti­val grounds into his own hazy uni­verse. Float­ing effort­less­ly between reg­gae, dub, hip-hop and elec­tron­ic tex­tures, the French artist deliv­ered a deeply immer­sive set built on heavy­weight basslines, hyp­not­ic rhythms and his unmis­tak­ably laid-back flow. It was less about explo­sive moments than about cre­at­ing a vibe—and the crowd hap­pi­ly sur­ren­dered to it.

Photos by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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Gong I – Julian Marley

Julian, Bob Mar­ley’s third-youngest son, once again demon­strat­ed why he ranks among the finest musi­cians in today’s reg­gae scene with a cap­ti­vat­ing per­for­mance on Sum­mer­jam’s Red Stage. Sim­ply watch­ing him play gui­tar is a plea­sure. While his own cat­a­logue may not yet boast the unde­ni­able anthems that have defined the careers of his broth­ers Zig­gy, Stephen, Ky-Mani and, above all, Dami­an, his musi­cian­ship leaves lit­tle to be desired. Unsur­pris­ing­ly, the emo­tion­al peaks of the set came when he reached into his father’s leg­endary song­book, treat­ing the crowd to clas­sics includ­ing ”Pos­i­tive Vibra­tion”, ”The Hea­then”, ”Stir It Up” and ”Jamming”—songs that feel as essen­tial to a reg­gae fes­ti­val as the basslines them­selves.

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Gong II – Ky-Mani Marley

Keep­ing the Mar­ley momen­tum alive, Ky-Mani Mar­ley stepped onto the Red Stage just moments after his broth­er Julian had wrapped up his set. Where Julian impressed with his refined musi­cian­ship, Ky-Mani brought a grit­ti­er, more ener­getic edge, com­bin­ing roots reg­gae with hip-hop influ­ences and a com­mand­ing stage pres­ence. His unmis­tak­ably soul­ful voice car­ried effort­less­ly across the fes­ti­val grounds as he moved between his own mate­r­i­al and a selec­tion of Bob Mar­ley clas­sics.

The audi­ence respond­ed in kind, singing along to every famil­iar cho­rus and reward­ing the band with a warm recep­tion through­out the hour-long per­for­mance. Rather than rely­ing sole­ly on his leg­endary fam­i­ly name, Ky-Mani show­cased the qual­i­ties that have earned him a loy­al fol­low­ing in his own right: charis­ma, authen­tic­i­ty and a nat­ur­al con­nec­tion with the crowd. It was anoth­er strong Mar­ley chap­ter in this year’s Sum­mer­jam sto­ry, prov­ing once again that the fam­i­ly’s musi­cal lega­cy remains in capa­ble hands.

Photos by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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Shoodilley-waddliley-diddley-diddley, whoa-oh – Barrington Levy

Few voic­es in reg­gae are as instant­ly recog­nis­able as Bar­ring­ton Levy’s, and even after more than four decades on stage, the Jamaican vet­er­an still knows how to com­mand a fes­ti­val crowd. Tak­ing over the Green Stage on Sun­day evening, Levy opened with the effort­less charis­ma and unmis­tak­able vocal style that have made him one of dance­hal­l’s true pio­neers. Clas­sics rolled out one after anoth­er, draw­ing loud sing-alongs from an audi­ence eager to cel­e­brate one of the gen­re’s liv­ing leg­ends.

As the set pro­gressed, how­ev­er, the momen­tum became increas­ing­ly uneven. Extend­ed crowd-par­tic­i­pa­tion sec­tions slowed the pace, occa­sion­al­ly inter­rupt­ing the flow that had made the open­ing stretch so engag­ing. Even so, the affec­tion the Sum­mer­jam audi­ence has for Bar­ring­ton Levy nev­er fad­ed. His unmis­tak­able voice and decades of influ­ence on reg­gae and dance­hall were enough to remind every­one why he remains such an impor­tant fig­ure in Jamaican music. It may not have been the most con­sis­tent per­for­mance of the week­end, but see­ing a leg­end like Bar­ring­ton Levy on a Sum­mer­jam stage is still some­thing spe­cial.

Yet, he was in a right foul mood after­wards, which is why the inter­view Samo­ra con­duct­ed with the dance­hall vet­er­an con­sist­ed main­ly of vit­ri­ol direct­ed at the organ­is­ers, who had alleged­ly cut him off and thus pre­vent­ed him from per­form­ing his lat­est sin­gle. As if no one had told him how much time he had on stage.

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Photos by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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Gratitude is a Must – Original Koffee

After step­ping away from the spot­light for almost three years, Orig­i­nal Kof­fee made her long-await­ed return to the Sum­mer­jam stage—and it was as if she had nev­er been away. Radi­at­ing con­fi­dence and joy from the moment she walked onstage, the Jamaican singer deliv­ered one of the most cap­ti­vat­ing per­for­mances of the entire week­end. Effort­less­ly mov­ing between ear­ly favourites like ”Burn­ing” and ”Ragga­muf­fin” and break­through hits such as ”Rap­ture” and ”Pres­sure”, she remind­ed every­one why she remains one of reg­gae’s most excit­ing voic­es of her gen­er­a­tion.

What made the per­for­mance tru­ly spe­cial, how­ev­er, was the chem­istry on stage. Backed by an excep­tion­al band that blend­ed razor-sharp pre­ci­sion with effort­less groove, Kof­fee’s rich vocals were giv­en all the space they need­ed to shine. Styl­ish chore­og­ra­phy added anoth­er lay­er to the show with­out ever over­shad­ow­ing the music, while Kof­fee her­self struck the per­fect bal­ance between charis­ma, humil­i­ty and pure musi­cal excel­lence. If there had been any doubts about her come­back, this per­for­mance erased them com­plete­ly. Orig­i­nal Kof­fee did­n’t just return to Summerjam—she returned as one of its bright­est stars.

Photos by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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The Living Legend – Burning Spear

There could hard­ly have been a more fit­ting way to bring Sum­mer­jam 2026 to a close than with Burn­ing Spear. As Win­ston Rod­ney took the Red Stage on Sun­day night, there was no need for flashy visu­als or grand ges­tures. His pres­ence alone was enough to com­mand the atten­tion of thou­sands gath­ered for the fes­ti­val’s final per­for­mance. Backed by a razor-sharp band and a pow­er­ful horn sec­tion, the roots reg­gae icon deliv­ered a mas­ter­class in restraint, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and musi­cal author­i­ty.

Draw­ing from a cat­a­logue that has shaped reg­gae for more than five decades, Burn­ing Spear let the music speak for itself. Time­less songs such as ”Slav­ery Days”, ”Mar­cus Gar­vey” and ”Hail H.I.M.” car­ried the unmis­tak­able weight of his­to­ry while sound­ing as rel­e­vant as ever. At 81, Rod­ney’s voice may have lost some of its youth­ful pow­er, but not its con­vic­tion. It was less a con­cert than a cel­e­bra­tion of roots reg­gae in its purest form—a dig­ni­fied, deeply mov­ing finale that remind­ed every­one why Burn­ing Spear remains one of the gen­re’s great­est liv­ing leg­ends.

Photos by Martin Duffy (@focusonbettah):

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The People of Summerjam – Photos by Nazar Moawad (@809klack)

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A Festival Looking to the Future – A Conclusion

True to its mot­to, Catch The Sun, Sum­mer­jam cap­tured every last ray of sun­shine at Cologne’s Füh­linger See. But it cap­tured much more than that. For three days and three long nights, the fes­ti­val cel­e­brat­ed live music, sound sys­tem cul­ture and pure par­ty vibes with one of its most diverse line-ups in years—placing a wel­come spot­light on Jamaica and the cur­rent gen­er­a­tion of dance­hall artists.

Since the younger branch of the Brozi family—led by Mar­ius with major sup­port from Ruffie—took the reins, Sum­mer­jam has con­tin­ued to explore new direc­tions. A few years ago, the Feel Good Stage was intro­duced, cre­at­ing a space where estab­lished sound sys­tems, emerg­ing selec­tors and DJs could become an inte­gral part of the fes­ti­val expe­ri­ence. It was a smart move that brought the scene itself even clos­er to the heart of the event. Today, the Feel Good Stage has grown into one of Sum­mer­jam’s biggest attrac­tions and undis­put­ed par­ty hotspots. This year was no excep­tion, with a con­stant rota­tion of sounds and DJs keep­ing the ener­gy high through­out the week­end. Among them was stage host Nay Hon­ey, who also took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to step behind the decks—and she absolute­ly rep­re­sent­ed.

Cred­it where cred­it is due: by book­ing Valiant, Dex­ta Daps and Masic­ka, Sum­mer­jam final­ly wel­comed a new gen­er­a­tion of Jamaican dance­hall stars to a major Ger­man fes­ti­val stage. That is exact­ly the kind of vision the scene needs. Look­ing for­ward means rep­re­sent­ing not only reg­gae and dance­hal­l’s rich his­to­ry, but also its vibrant present.

One of the week­end’s stand­out moments came on Sat­ur­day night when Masic­ka, sport­ing a Bob Mar­ley T‑shirt, closed the Green Stage along­side the leg­endary Ruff Cut Band. For decades, the band has backed some of Jamaica’s biggest names and become syn­ony­mous with live dance­hall at the high­est lev­el. Dex­ta Daps, mean­while, arrived with his own excep­tion­al­ly tight band and enough ener­gy to pow­er the entire fes­ti­val island. Togeth­er, the two deliv­ered a one-two punch—pun ful­ly intended—as hit after hit echoed across the grounds.

The Dance­hall Takeover host­ed by Jug­glerz was anoth­er unde­ni­able high­light, trans­port­ing the mas­sive straight from Cologne to Kingston with authen­tic street dance vibes, dancers and heavy­weight per­for­mances. Par­ty Ani­mal Char­ly Black, Valiant—making his Ger­man fes­ti­val debut—and Spice, the undis­put­ed Queen of Dance­hall, all brought unfor­get­table moments to the stage. True to form, Spice even had her­self wheeled onstage reclin­ing on a bed for her hit ”Sheet”, prov­ing once again why few enter­tain­ers can match her flair for spec­ta­cle.

Focus­ing on dance­hall here is by no means meant to over­shad­ow the rest of the line-up. Across the week­end, there were out­stand­ing per­for­mances from Lila Iké, Gen­tle­man, Burn­ing Spear, Pro­to­je, Richie Camp­bell, Orig­i­nal Kof­fee and many more, all con­tribut­ing to anoth­er mem­o­rable edi­tion of Sum­mer­jam.

With the fes­ti­val’s 40th anniver­sary now on the hori­zon, expec­ta­tions could­n’t be high­er. If Sum­mer­jam 2026 was any indi­ca­tion, the future looks bright. We’ll be there. Will you?

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