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Skiers and snowmobilers enjoy relaxing around an outdoor fire at the "Beach" area at the base lodge at Sugarloaf in 2015. (David Leaming/Staff photographer)

This weekend, hordes of skiers dressed in neon snowsuits and polarized sunglasses will crowd onto what’s known as The Beach at Sugarloaf, a patio outside the base lodge, where they’ll down hazy IPAs and pump their open palms in the air as one reggae band after another takes the stage.

Reggae Fest, in its 38th year, typically draws some 10,000 people to the Carrabassett Valley resort for the weekend-long celebration, marketed as “the biggest party on the East Coast.”

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Leslie Bridgers is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald, writing about Maine culture, customs and the things we notice and wonder about in our everyday lives. Originally from Connecticut, Leslie came...

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Top Comments

    1. Comment by metrodogmedia.

      I'm getting the impression that Gen Z and Millennials, or the ones that are not so attractive, enjoy shaming others who appear to be having fun. I get it, when you're unhappy some tend to gravitate to psychology's displacement theory to get back at others "to feel better." You know, schadenfreude. But please try to restrain yourself in this instance and let these people have some harmless fun. I've been to Jamaica and the locals there LOVE it when ANYONE has a good time listening to their music. And boy oh boy do they know how to party with the ganja. It goes hand in hand, or toke to toke.

    2. Comment by Maine_Sisyphus.

      Please relax, fellow commenters, and read the piece with an open mind. Maybe put this column in the category labeled "I never thought about it from that angle." It's a gentle reminder that this relates to actual people, an actual culture.

    3. Comment by VWrynnFTA.

      Alternative summary: "White Person asks other white people why they party so much to a music genre that comes from non-white people. White people don't reply so white person makes observations and assumptions about their intentions to shame them publicly by craving out an intellectual lane and permission structure through which this would be appropriate and shames white people for not taking that approach to enjoying this music. Professor from Arizona is asked to weigh in because... #Reasons."

      Sometimes people just want to go to a party. Not everything needs to be examined through a racial lens and written in a way to drive clicks for your newspaper through racial outrage headlines. But hey at least I generated 17 cents in ad revenue for the PPH because I click on the headline and the Empire Flooring as popped up to try and distract me.

      Good job PPH, make that ad revenue!!

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