Red Lion Reggae Band on the Niantic River
Red Lion Reggae Band on the Niantic River Saturday, September 5, bringing live roots reggae directly onto the water for an unusual Save the River-Save the Hills event beginning at 5 p.m.
There isn’t a parking address to plug into the GPS.
In fact, the event flyer says exactly the opposite:
No parking. By boat, canoe, kayak, or float. No landing or docking.
If you’re used to arriving at a club, festival, or park to see a band, this one requires a completely different plan.
You need to be on the river.
Red Lion Comes Out of Southern New England’s Reggae Scene
Red Lion Reggae Band brings together musicians with roots in a number of reggae projects familiar around southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Members have musical connections to groups including Soulshot, Large Up, Dub Squad, Inity, Space Mon Rah and High Voltage Band.
At the front is vocalist and percussionist Eric “Irie Feelinz” Williams.
Guitarist and vocalist Jeff Gibson is another member of the group.
Rather than approaching reggae simply as summertime party music, Red Lion has been described around the regional music scene as playing conscious, uplifting reggae, combining original lyrics with a message centered on positivity and unity.
That makes the group a particularly appropriate choice for an environmental gathering on the Niantic River.
Reggae Has Always Had Something to Say
Reggae certainly works on the water.
But there’s more to the pairing than atmosphere.
The genre that developed in Jamaica during the late 1960s and 1970s has a long history of connecting music with social commentary, spirituality, political struggle and calls for unity.
Bob Marley and the Wailers took that message around the world, but conscious reggae has never been limited to Marley.
Artists including Peter Tosh, Burning Spear and generations that followed used reggae to address the world around them rather than treating the music solely as entertainment.
Red Lion operates within that broader tradition while drawing on decades of reggae played much closer to home.
The members’ connections to multiple New England bands give the project a lineage within the region’s own reggae community.
A Band Built From Familiar Regional Players
Southeastern Connecticut has sustained a surprisingly durable reggae scene.
Red Lion is one of its newer combinations.
The band has appeared around New London and elsewhere in southern New England, including a downtown New London Let Loose Thursday performance.
The group’s sound crosses roots reggae and related styles while retaining the live-band character at the center of the genre: vocals, guitar, bass, drums and rhythm working together rather than a preprogrammed approximation of reggae.
That should translate particularly well to Saturday’s setting.
There isn’t much need to manufacture a tropical atmosphere when the audience is already floating on the Niantic River on Labor Day weekend.
The Concert Is Really About the River
The location isn’t incidental.
Save the River-Save the Hills is a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Niantic River Estuary, its watershed and the Oswegatchie Hills.
Its work extends across the watershed in East Lyme, Waterford, Montville and Salem.
The organization has spent years advocating for the river while also trying to make a larger point about watersheds:
What happens on land eventually affects the water.
Development, stormwater runoff, nutrients, sewage and changes to the surrounding landscape can all influence an estuary.
That’s why the organization’s name includes both halves.
Save the River.
Save the Hills.
The Niantic River Isn’t Really a Conventional River
The Niantic River is an estuary connected to Niantic Bay and Long Island Sound.
Fresh water draining from the surrounding watershed meets salt water moving inland from the Sound, creating a productive environment for marine and coastal life.
That connection also makes the estuary sensitive to what happens upstream and along its shores.
Water doesn’t respect town boundaries.
Runoff entering a tributary miles away can ultimately become part of the same system used by boaters, anglers, wildlife and people living along the Niantic River.
Save the River-Save the Hills has built much of its work around that interconnectedness.
One of Its Most Practical Programs Happens From a Boat
The organization doesn’t limit itself to advocacy.
It also operates the Niantic River pumpout boat.
The concept is remarkably straightforward.
Recreational boats equipped with holding tanks accumulate sewage. Instead of that waste entering local waters, boaters can use the pumpout service to have it removed.
The program operates during boating season, with service continuing beyond Labor Day on a reduced weekend schedule.
It’s one of those environmental programs that isn’t particularly glamorous but produces an easily understood result:
Waste removed from a boat is waste that doesn’t end up in the estuary.
So there is something fitting about Save the River-Save the Hills bringing people together for another event that can only be experienced from boats.
The Hills Above the River Matter Too
The organization’s other major focus is visible from its name.
Save the River-Save the Hills has worked alongside Friends of the Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve and other conservation advocates to protect undeveloped land in the Oswegatchie Hills.
More than 450 acres are already protected within the Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve.
Additional land has remained the subject of a long-running conservation effort.
The reason is both scenic and ecological.
Forested hills absorb rainfall, provide wildlife habitat and help reduce the amount and speed of runoff moving toward waterways.
Protecting the forest above the Niantic River therefore becomes part of protecting the river itself.
It’s watershed conservation in its most literal form.
Earlier Saturday, People Will Be Running Through Those Hills
September 5 happens to put both halves of the organization’s mission on display, although the events are separate.
At 9 a.m., the fifth annual Run for the Hills 5K takes place at the Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve.
That event is a roughly 3.3-mile trail race and hike raising money for maintenance of the preserve.
Eight hours later, Red Lion begins playing on the Niantic River.
Someone could conceivably spend the morning running through the hills and the evening listening to reggae from a boat, but neither event depends upon attending the other.
For the evening crowd, the river itself is the venue.
What We Know — and What We Don’t
This is one event where it’s important not to fill in missing details.
The promotional flyer confirms a 5 p.m. performance Saturday, September 5, on the Niantic River with Red Lion Reggae Band.
It also explicitly says there is no parking and access is by boat only.
What isn’t stated is equally important.
The flyer doesn’t provide a conventional street address for the concert. It doesn’t advertise a ticket price. It doesn’t identify a public shoreline viewing area. And it doesn’t tell attendees to park somewhere and walk to the performance.
It also doesn’t establish whether the musicians will be performing aboard a vessel, from a dock, float or waterfront property.
Until organizers provide more specific instructions, those details shouldn’t be assumed.
The important instruction for anyone interested in attending is the simplest one on the flyer:
By boat only.
A Different Kind of Labor Day Weekend Concert
There will be plenty of places around southeastern Connecticut to hear live music over Labor Day weekend.
Very few require arriving by water.
That gives Red Lion’s September 5 performance a character of its own before the first note is played.
Boats on the Niantic River.
A regional reggae band playing conscious music.
And an organization using the water it’s spent years trying to protect as the setting for the gathering.
Sometimes the venue tells most of the story.
This time, the venue is the river.
Event Details
Event: Red Lion Reggae Band on the Niantic River
Date: Saturday, September 5, 2026
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: Golden Spur, Niantic River
Featuring: The Red Lion Reggae Band
Music: Roots and conscious reggae
Presented in Support of: Save the River-Save the Hills
Access: By boat, canoe, kayak, or float. No landing or docking.
Parking: None
Admission: No admission charge is stated on the promotional flyer
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.