New Years Eve Gala with the Wailers

This year’s New Year’s Eve Gala will celebrate the sweet sounds of Jamaica with reggae legends The Wailers on Dec. 31. Tickets for the Gala are $100 general admission on the floor, limited patron seating cocktail tables will be available. The original backing band for Bob Marley, the Wailers have sold in excess of 250 million albums worldwide. Outside of their groundbreaking work with Marley, the Wailers have also played or performed with international acts like Sting, the Fugees, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana and Alpha Blondy as well as reggae legends such as Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Burning Spear. As the greatest living exponents of Jamacia’s reggae traddition, the Wailers have completed innumerable others tours, playing to an estimated 24 million people across the globe. Their nucleus formed in 1969, when Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh recruited the Barrett brothers — bassist Aston “Family Man” and drummer Carly — from Lee Perry’s Upsetters to play on hits such as Lively Up Yourself, Trenchtown Rock, Duppy Conqueror and many more. Inspired by Rastafari and their ambitions of reaching an international audience, this is the line-up that pioneered roots rock reggae and signed to Island Records in 1971. Bunny and Peter left two years later and it was at this point that the in-demand Barrett brothers, whose rhythms also underpinned innumerable 70s reggae hits by other acts, assumed the title of Wailers and backed Marley on the group’s international breaktrhough album, Natty Dread. Family Man still leads the band and the SAF is please to host such legendary musicians to ring in the new year. There will be patron cocktail seating in the balcony and general admission tickets for the floor. The doors will open at 9 p.m. with opener Tugg kicking things off and the Wailers will begin at 10:30 p.m.

New Year’s Eve Gala with The Wailers