The Rototom festival strengthens its social commitment by funding four projects in health, childhood and humanitarian aid with the NGOs Ateneu, Payasospital, UNRWA and Stand up for Jamaica. The festival will roll out this initiative through the solidarity contributions from its inclusive season passes, which in 2025 totalled €42,500, allocated to four social organisations.

That music can be a powerful tool for social transformation will once again be evident next summer at the 31st edition of the Rototom Sunsplash festival, which will be held in Benicàssim (Castellón) from August 17 to 22, 2026.

The international reggae festival reinforces its commitment to solidarity by promoting a new campaign to finance four social projects of organizations that work from the local to the international level in fields as diverse as brain health (Fundación Ateneu Castelló), the emotional well-being of hospitalized children (Payasospital), the response to humanitarian emergencies (UNRWA España) and the social reintegration of people deprived of liberty (Stand up for Jamaica). Four projects that share a common goal: to improve the quality of life and defend the rights of people and communities in vulnerable situations.

The initiative will once again be articulated through contributions channeled through the festival’s inclusive passes, which allow children under 13, people over 65 and people with disabilities (65% accredited) to enjoy the six days of the festival, and the innovative Welcome Party on August 16, through a symbolic, unique and solidarity payment of 10 euros. An amount contributed by the public of these three groups at the time of withdrawing their pass and that will be allocated entirely to the projects they choose.

The campaign gives continuity to a consolidated trajectory of support for social causes. In the 2025 edition, Rototom Sunsplash gave 42,500 euros to the organizations Human Call, Conquistando Escalones, AIPHYC and A La Par, reaffirming the festival’s commitment to integrate solidarity as a structural axis of its identity.

Four entities, four projects

In the local sphere, the Fundación Ateneu Castelló will develop, through this solidarity campaign together with Rototom Sunsplash, the project ‘Together for Brain Health-CRAPPS Living Room’, focused on the care of people with Acquired Brain Damage (ABD). The initiative will allow the adaptation of a key therapeutic space of the new Rehabilitation, Personal Autonomy and Social Participation Center (CRAPPS) of Castelló, designed to train essential skills for daily life and that will benefit annually 200 people with ABD and their families. “For Ateneu, being part of the Rototom Sunsplash solidarity campaign is a transformative boost: it will allow us to enable a space where people with ABD can recover autonomy, motivation and well-being. The impact is direct and real: each contribution helps to create the room where life begins again”, they point out from Ateneu Castelló. The entity has 25 years of experience supporting people (ABD) through comprehensive care that includes rehabilitation, accompaniment and prevention. In Castelló, 6,000 people live with ABI, 84% as a result of a stroke.

For its part, and also in the Valencian Community, the association Payasospital will promote the project ‘Smiles for hospitalized children’, an initiative that uses humor as a therapeutic tool to improve the emotional health of pediatric patients. With 26 years of experience, Payasospital operates in twelve Valencian public hospitals, benefiting more than 20,000 hospitalized children each year through personalized visits from professional clowns, in coordination with healthcare personnel. Payasospital’s participation in this solidarity initiative “represents the opportunity to make visible the necessary work we do in favor of hospitalized children; a unique opportunity to motivate, far beyond our immediate environment of action, the collaboration of society with our cause. This support will translate into hundreds of visits that will help improve the health of pediatric patients and contribute to the humanization of healthcare”, they maintain.

The international dimension of the campaign comes from UNRWA España, with the project ‘Humanitarian emergency in Gaza’. In a context of extreme humanitarian gravity, the collaboration with Rototom Sunsplash will contribute to sustaining shelters, distributing vital aid and maintaining essential services such as health, education, water and sanitation for more than two million people. “Being part of this campaign is essential. In times where the world seems to forget about Palestine, having the support of Rototom fills us with hope. Everything collected will translate directly into humanitarian aid for an exhausted population that we have to show that it is not alone”, they explain from UNRWA España. The United Nations agency UNRWA, with 75 years of work, remains an indispensable pillar of protection and dignity for the refugee population of Palestine.

Finally, the festival will support Stand Up For Jamaica and its project to update computer centers for the professional training of the prison population. The initiative will allow the renovation of equipment in the General Penitentiaries of St. Catherine and Tower Street and the South Camp Women’s Penitentiary, within the framework of the educational project with the prison population that the NGO develops in these institutions, benefiting 200 people deprived of liberty and facilitating their access to technical and university online training. Specifically, the updating of these facilities will allow the development of the program with the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) so that the prison population can attend online classes and obtain a university degree in Finance and International Finance. These rooms also offer classes to small groups in data management, computer technician and graphic design. A key step to “fight against stigma” and to promote personal autonomy, break cycles of exclusion and promote real social reintegration through obtaining a qualified professional competence.

With this new solidarity campaign, Rototom Sunsplash consolidates its commitment to a committed, inclusive and conscious festival model, where culture and, specifically music, not only celebrate diversity, but also generate a positive and lasting impact on society.