ANNOUNCEMENT - 2021 EDITION SUSPENDED

The current sanitary measures would limit the festival's program to holding concerts with social distancing "and although we understand that they are necessary, they are incompatible with the essence and atmosphere of Rototom Sunsplash”.

Benicàssim, June 3, 2021

“The 2022 edition of Rototom Sunsplash will be spectacular. Unforgettable. But we just have to wait. This year we will not be able to meet as we would have liked”. The director of the international reggae festival Rototom Sunsplash in Benicàssim, Filippo Giunta, this Thursday, confirmed the cancellation of the 2021 edition, scheduled for August 16-22.

The current health crisis currently includes a series of measures “that contradict the spirit and essence of the festival. Rototom Sunsplash is a meeting place that promotes the exchange of experiences, the intermingling of cultures and peaceful coexistence. Maintaining the idiosyncrasies of this event is incompatible with social distancing, along with the other measures that the current situation imposes upon us for health reasons”, Giunta said.

The decision was adopted after a meeting with the heads of the Departments of Health and Tourism of ​​the Valencian Generalitat to which the management of Rototom Sunsplash had been summoned this week, in an attempt to find a formula to save this year’s edition of the reggae festival with all the necessary sanitary guarantees. The objective was thus to open up to the celebration of events of a certain size in the coming months.

"We greatly appreciate the gesture and interest in finding a solution," the festival indicates. However, they point out that at this time and due to the risk of outbreaks, the organization of events of this nature is limited to the activities of a strictly musical nature (only concerts), with no room for parallel gastronomic and cultural programming. Furthermore the restrictions include capacity limits, social distancing and masks, and the implementation of a campsite with bubble groups with no common areas. "We understand their concerns and responsibility in health matters and we know that it is really difficult to make decisions of this scale. However, even if we give our all to facilitate the event by doing things such as carrying out antigen tests at the entrances, cutting capacity and changing our logistics. The Rototom vibe is not guaranteed”, the festival says.

“Rototom Sunsplash is much more than music. It has changed country and location, but it has always been true to its spirit. When this essence is put at risk and the only thing left is to do concerts, we are certain that it is not what we want. We would be deceiving our public, who have bought a ticket for an event with a given set of characteristics and if we transform it into something different. It would not be correct”, asserts Giunta.

People who have already purchased their tickets for this year’s edition will receive an e-mail in the next few days with all the details and will have a period of two weeks to decide whether to request a refund “or give us their trust for another year and keep the ticket for a new get together in the summer of 2022", the organization says. All information about the procedures will be available at www.rototom.com starting this Friday, June 4.

“We have more than a year ahead of us to add a spectacular program to the one we already have and start shaping a huge and very special edition. An edition in which, once again, we can recreate our atmosphere. To get back to the mingling of cultures, to promoting coexistence and to create a space to meet, for the family, all around reggae,” Giunta states.

We will come back stronger, together. You deserve to be part of this unique experience again.

You are our certainty, and we want you here. You are Rototom, family.

See you soon