DJs, beach, a giant bonfire, batucada, fire ritual, juggling, food, natural juices, cocktails and lots of other surprises, and all in a place filled with reggae and ‘good vibes’ that is Solé Rototom Beach. Can you think of a better plan for the most magical night of the year?

Together with Juanita Club we have prepared a great party by the sea for you to celebrate and enjoy yourself, on the Night of San Juan. And given that we don’t want distances, traffic jams or checkpoints to impede you from joining us, we offer a direct bus service from Valencia to our beach bar. Furthermore, the ticket (10 euro) includes a drink at Solé Rototom Beach.

The bus will depart from Torres de Quart (Valencia) at 18:30, and will return at 04:00 from Gurugú beach. Get your ticket in Nehuen Tasca Vegana (Carrer del Crist del Grao, 14) and Gondwana Surf Vlc (Gran Vía Germanies, 25). For sale online at movingtickets.com.

Social Art Gallery. Under this new name our space for artistic expression, which together with the name change, now aims to work towards a social objective. For the first time ever the 20 works, related to the theme of Africa, created in this area, located in the Art Plaza, to fill the festival with colour and life, will be put on sale. The profits will be used to support projects developed by NGO and entities that have close links with the philosophy the Rototom Sunsplash.

The essence of Social Art Gallery will also be present in the different activities related to art programmed in the festival’s cultural areas, such as workshops creating African masks in Magicomundo and ArteSano Market and the design of mandalas in Pachamama. Also with the ‘body painting’ with tribal paints, thanks to United Minds, in African Village and the urban art proposal in the form of a large scale group collage of the De Tripas Aerosol collective, that will be done in the Plaza of the Social Forum.

We would like to remind you that the registration period to participate in the Social Art Gallery 2017 ends on June 30.

If you are considering enjoying our 8-day festival but you are discouraged by not knowing who to leave your pet with, stop worrying about it cause we have a good alternative. A canine residence 10 minutes away from the concerts venue, where your dog will be perfectly taken care of.

Besides, customers wearing the Rototom wristband will have a 10% discount. And to make things easier, staff from the residence will go to the festival venue from Monday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. to pick up the new guest.

Prices, schedules, services and requirements, at www.mediterraniacentrocanino.com

Pack your bags and come to Benicasim in the best company!

This show will be one of the main attractions of this year’s programme, taking place at the Rototom Circus, our most dynamic and adrenaline-filled area. The African circus company Fekat Circus from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) lands again in Benicasim on 15^th and 16^th of August, in the middle of their European tour of “The Rise of the Full Moon”, to share the power and overflowing passion of the continent with the people attending the Celebrating Africa edition. On top of that, their shows also follow the formula of the forum-theater, seeking the gesture, complicity and involvement of the crowd, demonstrating that the universal language of circus can become the driving force for social change.

In fact, Fekat Circus apart from being a high-level circus project that will amaze the audience at our festival, it is also a circus school in Addis Ababa with a social aspect behind. They train young people living in disadvantaged areas of the Ethiopian capital so they can find an opportunity to improve their reality and escape urban poverty through this artistic field. The company also takes its laughter in the shape of clowns to various hospitals and promotes the first African Circus Festival of Ethiopia. Oh wow! And we will have them in Benicasim. A truly recommended real pleasure.

Sustainable inside and out, in our festival we like to be surrounded by projects that come to our festival with an environmental commitment, such as ‘Carga tu móvil’, that will offer the mobile charging service in the campsite area. This company, wanting to do its bit for the environment by making the festival more sustainable, offers ‘powerbanks’ to rent that use green energy from 100% renewable sources, which respect the environment and avoid CO2 and other contaminants.

Furthermore, when the ‘powerbanks’ product life ends, ‘Carga tu móvil’ manages their disposal in collaboration with the Fundación Ecopilas, a company certified to collect and manage battery and charger disposal.

For this year’s edition we will have charge points open 24 hours a day, from the beginning until the end of the festival. These installations will have space for 1,600 units (800 per point).

We are officially the first festival in the Valencian Community to be certified for its family friendly character. Thanks to the brand Tour & Kids and which is supported by the Valencia Agency for Tourism (AVT). This development consolidates our event as a holiday destination and the activities we organise for our ‘child’ and family audience, to which we dedicate more than half of our 14 extra-musical areas, some of which boast exclusive programs, such as Magicomundo and Rototom Circus, giving shape to a festival by day with over eight hours of uninterrupted beats a day, until sunset.

This year our two most family orientated areas Magicomundo and Rototom Circus, programs will be strongly influenced by Africa and its cultures. Create, play, dream, share and offer a different perspective on education from different viewpoints, that is what is at the heart of Magicomundo, the most family orientated space, with 7 hours a day of activity in its six territories with special guests like the Ethiopian circus company Fekat Circus, one of the key participants at Rototom Circus. Each day, from 15:00 until the concerts on Main Stage begin this space will offer its circus school, its Olympics, and circus shows for audiences of all ages. Activities for families will also be on offer in other parts of the festival arena, such as Mercado ArteSano, Pachamama and African Village, and on the beaches of Benicassim and Castellon with the SunBeach and Solé Rototom Beach. To be precise, the festival’s beach bar broadens its program of cultural and sporting events to experience and enjoy with the family, thanks to Formigues Festival.

Furthermore, this year we have improved the Campsite for those who come with their family. We open a kiddy park to play and relax aswell as a closed space for changing babies.

To try the delights of a country is to delve into its culture, its history and its traditions. Smell, touch, taste, celebrate and meet. This sensual experience is made possible by the great variety of African cuisine. Furthermore, on the continent that inspires this year’s 2017 edition, the act of sharing a meal is synonymous with being hospitable. It is this fusion of experiences and flavours that we offer this year at African Village thanks to five culinary proposals from Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, Morocco and the Ivory Coast.

Chicken yassa and beef cuscús, as well as their fresh Atlantic fish versions; mafé; thiou; the famous fatayas –spicy beef or fish pies-; bissap (hebiscous flower) and ginger slushies and for dessert benye (coconut croquettes), thiakry and lakh, along with wheat or mijo semolina with an aromatic yogurt sauce. That is what Keráfrica, brings to the festival this year, the Senegalese restaurant that offers typical dishes, all prepared under the watchful eye of their native Chef: Diarry.

From Senegal we make the jump to Ethiopia with the restaurant Addis Abeba and their unmissable ingenius and creative vegetarian dishes (‘Abeba gromen’, ‘Atkelt’and ‘Duba’) also available are meat dishes such as ‘Segawot’ and ‘Dorowot’, two beef and chicken stews with crystalized onion. On the other hand, Chez Penda joins the festival with several gastronomic specialities from Mali, vegetarian and Italian. Croquettes with vegetables, aubergine caviar, mafé with yucca and name as well as desserts with coconut are but some of the delights on offer.

We closet he circle with the desserts and mint teas of the Berber space Pause Nomade, where you can also enjoy cuscus and tajine; and the shakes of moringa or baobab from the exotic cocktail bar Baobab Superfoods from Senegal, that this year will also add tasty dishes to its menu from the Ivory Coast such as ‘Poulet Kédjénou’, banana fritter ‘Alloko’ or the tapioca paste (‘Attiéké’).

The stage of African Village offers an intracontinental journey with the music from Madagascar, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon with the new additions to the line-up of our most African space. Artists, who will play a transversal role at the festival, by participating in activities in the festival’s different areas.

This is precisely the case with the musician from Madagascar Kilema. An authentic magache cultural ambassador, who presents its cultural wealth not only on stage but also with workshops for children that he himself has designed and will share in the Ubuntu space and Magicomundo on August 12 and 13, respectively. With over 20 years of experience and three albums, we will have the opportunity to listen to him on the first day of the festival.

From Guinea Bissau we have Mû Mbana, singer, musician, poet, composer and 2 “eternal apprentice”, in his own words. He will present us with his new album, Iñén, on August 16 and that same day he will give a workshop of African song in the Ubuntu space and on the 17^th in Pachamama.

The new round of confirmations is completed by the project Ashanti: Afrobeat vs Dancehall from Barcelona, a party with African music at its core that will be powered by Dj Day B, Dj Baba Sy and Dj Vera G. Moum

Day B is an Afro-Spanish DJ (Nigeria-Spain) that presents his roots in his sets: a fusion of sounds from the whole continent and its diaspora, from Afrobeat to dancehall -African and Panamanian- and African house among other genres. DJ Baba Sy, from Senegal based in Barcelona, with his eclectic sets mixes beats form his homeland with more contemporary styles from his current place of residence, everything from Afro electro and reggae to dancehall. Vera G. Moumie is an Afro-Spanish (Cameroon-Spain), also residing in Barcelona, that mixes all kinds of beats such as makossa, sokous, Congolese rumba and even Angolan kuduro.

They are small, barely weighing 8 grams, seemingly harmless and yet despite their short period of use, they suppose 4% of the world’s plastic waste that takes thousands of years to be broken down. We are talking about plastic straws, those colourful things that accompany many of our refreshments and drinks, and which the planet cannot absorb. For this reason and in keeping with our green commitment, we are going to substitute them this coming August for 380,000 bio straws. They are made with PLA, a bio plastic of organic origin that comes from corn starch, which is 100% compostable and biodegradable. Compared to their plastic competitors, they only take 60 days to breakdown it they are composted in a controlled manner. The difference is obvious.

With this green project, we become the first macro festival in Spain to use them. The first 380,000 units will be supplied by Huhtamaki Spain, franchise of the Finnish firm, with offices in Nules (Castellón), with them we will prevent the dumping of 300 kg of polypropylene on a planet that deserve s more respect.

The first full moon party of the summer will be held this Friday, 9 June, Celebrating Africa in Solé Rototom Beach. With it comes one of the season’s special parties: the first session of Afroreggae Full Moon, a new project to empower African culture that will come from now until September, with each full moon (9 June, 8 July, 5 August and 8 September) with cultural actors, movements, collectives, musicians, DJ and an audience that love the continent and reggae.

The program for Friday looks promising. We open at sunset with Bissap, the project run by the Senegalese tailor Mo Mbaye, and a special African fashion show. We will also be joined byÁfrica Luna, a dance and percussion group with artists from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cuba, Germany, France and Spain that will share the continents origins with us to the beat djembe, dum dum, flute and kora. Doing their bit, Blood & Fyah will bring their unmistakable sound to make the night even more special. The cherry on the cake will be Radio Babylonia Ibiza, coming from the Island bursting with energy that will have us dancing to African and Jamaican beats.

To make sure you won’t miss this special event, we are putting on return bus routes between Valencia and the Grao of Castellón (10 euros + beer or refreshment) departing at 20:00 from Valencia, in the Cánovas square and returning at 03:00 from Solé. Tickets on sale: África Luna and Mon pare Tomàs (calle Hospital 14-Valencia).

Doesn’t that sound good?

Put a bit of reggae in your life!

To allow you more time to get creative, we have extended the registration deadline to participate in the Art Symposium 2017 June 30.

‘Celebrating Africa’ is the theme for this the festival’s 24^th edition and should be the inspiration for you to design your drafts. The format for the final works: 210x210 centimetres. Works should use mixed techniques, acrylics and other styles, excluding the use of sprays.

We would like to remind you that the works will be displayed in the festival venue, from August 12 to 19, and at the end they will be made available to the organisation.

You can register through the following form.

Rototom Sunsplash 2017 has confirmed its full star-studded list of live reggae acts on the Main Stage. The festival, taking place in Benicassim from 12th to 19th August, is proud to announce the final addition to the line-up, the Doctor of Dancehall, Beenie Man.

This Jamaican child deejay prodigy turned veteran entertainer will return to Rototom, bringing his irrepressible energy and full bag of raw and overproof dancehall hits on Wednesday 16 August. In keeping with this year’s theme, Celebrating Africa, Beenie has toured and performed in many African countries through the years.

Reggae music is the heartbeat of Africa. Created in Jamaica, in the wake of colonial independence, it has spread throughout the diaspora to every corner of the globe. Rototom Sunsplash’s Main Stage offering combines reggae from Jamaica, Europe, and America, with highly influential parallel forms from Africa, and the continent’s own reggae scene – taking the music full circle.

Checkout the artists on Main Stage by day