Chuck Fenda sets Turnpike Reggae Festival ablaze

Chuck Fenda didn’t just close the Turnpike Reggae Festival – he burned the house down – figuratively, of course.

The Jamaican reggae firebrand delivered a scorching headline performance before an estimated 7,000 fans at the 2026 staging of the festival at Landgasthaus Lönne in Herzebrock-Clarholz, Germany, last weekend, turning the night into a full-blown celebration of reggae, rebellion and raw Jamaican energy. The festival featured performances from Andrew Murphy and Teacha Dee, but when Chuck Fenda hit the stage, the temperature changed.

The veteran entertainer charged into his set with the intensity that has defined his career, greeted by a roar from the massive crowd. Then came the fire. Towering flames shot into the night sky as the opening strains of his signature anthem Gash Dem and Light Dem thundered across the venue. Thousands of hands went up as Chuck Fenda transformed the festival grounds into a sea of voices, flags and flashing lights. There was little time to recover. He kept the pressure on with the infectious Put It On Me, before slowing the pace and turning reflective with Waan Gwan Pon Di Rock, his socially conscious anthem examining the moral and spiritual troubles confronting Jamaica and the wider world.

The mood shifted dramatically. Thousands of fans lifted their illuminated phones into the darkness, creating a glittering canopy across the venue as Fenda delivered his message.

“Can you feel it?” he shouted. The audience answered with a thunderous roar. Then Chuck Fenda erased the distance between artiste and audience altogether. In one of the evening’s defining moments, he climbed down from the stage, crossed the guardrail and plunged directly into the crowd, surrounded by cheering fans eager to get closer to the Jamaican star.

From there, he powered into All About the Weed, with the audience singing along word for word as flags waved above the packed festival grounds. It was the kind of closing performance festival organisers dream about: big songs, bigger energy and a performer completely in command of his audience.

By the time the final notes faded, Chuck Fenda had delivered more than a headline set.

He had brought the hits, the message and the fire – and left Germany ‘burning for more’.