Live at Rototom Sunsplash

A green haze has descended on the beautiful surroundings of Rivellino Park near the village of Osoppo, north Italy. Music lovers from this country and around Europe have arrived en masse for one of the continent's biggest reggae festivals: Rototom Sunsplash. The skies are clear and the sun is shining; the volume of smoke generated by this event must surely be worrying aircraft pilots flying overhead.

But where's the Reggae?

Last night the main stage was pretty disappointing. I can only say I enjoyed one of the four artists on display; the others were playing such a distorted, pop-centric version of reggae that I found it pretty much impossible.

The first three acts - Zoe and her "Okada Supersound" band, Maxi Priest and another singer whose name escapes me, were not really playing reggae in my opinion. The backing bands were well-drilled and immaculate, but the songs were certainly not traditional of this genre. Instead, they went on and on about love and the usual kind of popular kitsch; the only thing which distinguished them from bog-standard manufactured pop tunes was the presence of real musicians and the occasional insertion of off-beat reggae chord structures.

Maxi Priest is apparently the greatest-selling reggae artist currently alive. I don't pretend to be an expert in this style of music, but surely Bob Marley - whose giant image overlooks the performance area - would be turning in his grave from this fact. His voice is identical to any of the pop singers you hear on the mainstream radio stations and the same can be said of Zoe. They share the same richly cliched approach of using false American accents, which in a way probably explains their apparent popularity with the standard audience. However, it was pretty satisfying when, on receiving the question "do you want some more Maxi Priest?" from the announcer, the crowd's response was less than enthusiastic and he did not return.

Now, that's probably enough moaning about the bad music. I had been looking forward to the final act even more after the opening disappointments, and Sizzla definitely lived up to expectation. His performance was full of energy, vibrance and charisma which brought great relief to the hardcore fans. After less than five actual reggae songs from all the combined preceding artists, it was good to have some real music at last. Frequent calls from the singer for people to raise their lighters (and other assorted pyrotechnic devices) kept everyone involved and he patrolled the stage commandingly.

Hopefully that will be a sign of things to come, because I've had enough soft pop-reggae to last me for the rest of this nine-day festival. Of the artists on show tonight, I'm looking forward to Junior Kelly's similar dancehall tunes and Africa Unite, which is one of Italy's oldest reggae bands. Bitty McLean from the UK looks to be more of the same regurgitated pop nonsense, so maybe I will give that a miss.