Palmetto Bay, a globe-trotting world music destination?

Organizers from Ikus Records and the Caribbean Music Alliance say yes.

They hope to hit a high note in the music world for Palmetto Bay's first World Beat Music Festival with headliner Julian Marley on Sunday.

World Beat Music Festival performers -- in addition to Marley, the 34-year-old London-born son of the late reggae icon Bob Marley -- include Wayne Wade, Screwdriver, Phyllisia, Daniel Brown, Mariah & the Reggae All-Star Band, Camar, Melocanari, Nukachez and Mariachi Jalisco Band.

If this fare sounds more familiar to, say, downtown Miami's Bayfront Park, home of earlier music festivals devoted to the island rhythms of Marley music, that point isn't lost on its star.

``I was also surprised,'' Marley said on the telephone a few hours after an all-night rehearsal stint at a Miami sound studio. ``But knowing it's more of a residential area, that could be very good, too.''

Then he joked, ``As long as the curfew is not too early.

``It'll probably be close,'' Marley added, laughing.

The singer-songwriter plans a 90-minute set, drawing on his albums Lion in the Morning, A Time & Place and the spring release, Awake. Along with his band, Marley has rehearsed 27 songs, including a handful of new tracks like the current single Violence in the Streets.

Palmetto Bay spokesman Bill Kress notes that the chosen venue -- the Palmetto Bay Village Center -- gives off its own island vibe.

``You can feel you're next to the shore; you can smell it and feel it. It's a great venue and close enough to the bay,'' Kress said.

David Hopper, part of the event's production staff of Hopperteam with wife Susan Hopper, said that the Village was chosen for its location in South Miami-Dade.

``There's a wide variety of music on this show, but it's definitely Caribbean-leaning and there's a large Caribbean community in that area. It seemed like a good fit and people would come out,'' he said.

Hopper hopes to attract 4,000 for this inaugural festival. The grounds, site of the old Burger King headquarters, can hold about 10,000.

``Having Julian on the show targetted the college community,'' he said.

The region's ability to draw from the Florida Keys was another selling point, Susan Hopper said. ``People forget how many people in the Keys love reggae music.''

For Marley it's a bit of a homecoming. Though born in London, he attended one year of school at Pinecrest Elementary in the 1980s. Several family members live in Pinecrest.

Marley was not quite 6 when his father died of cancer at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami in May 1981 at the age of 36. But, perhaps more than half-brothers Ziggy or Damian, his music clings to the style of traditional reggae his father helped popularize worldwide in the 1970s with anthems like I Shot the Sheriff, No Woman, No Cry and Exodus.

The title track to the younger Marley's Awake was inspired by the death of his grandmother Cedella Marley Booker in 2008.

``It gives me a spiritual boost and a moral boost and keeps me where I need to be musically,'' Marley said. ``My music is the same as our father's in the sense of the message. The music can change but the message stays the same and many youths need to hear the music. That's one of the strengths [of reggae.] Every day we need to hear something positive.''

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