The Social Forum opens its agenda at the Teatre Municipal de Benicàssim, with a free session from rapper Arkano on the power of music and art to transform the world.

Eclectic sounds are back in the Rototom Sunsplash line-up this Saturday, August 17th. The second day of the international reggae festival, which is being held at the Benicàssim concert venue until the 21st, will build a path towards the utopia, as the slogan of this 29th edition encourages. From the legendary reggae roots of Black Uhuru, to the dancehall of the genre’s icon, Busy Signal, passing through the global sound of Nattali Rize, Marcus Gad and North East Ska Jazz Orchestra meets Wicked Dub Division. The Spanish scene, which spans reggae, dub and hip hop, will be well represented by Iseo Dodosound, Rudymentari and Anier.

The day also marks the start of the debates at the 2024 Social Forum, which leaves the venue this year and lands for the first time at the Teatre Municipal de Benicàssim, in the heart of the old town, to strengthen ties with the town and reach more people.

The lineup of the Main Stage will undoubtedly be marked by the presence of Black Uhuru, one of the most important bands in the history of reggae, awarded a Grammy for ‘Anthem’, which will have Benicàssim – as part of Rototom Sunsplash – as its only date in Spain.

Marcus Gad has been a roots reggae phenomenon in recent years. Straight from New Caledonia, he stands out for his slow, meditative sound, which he has taken in an incisive turn towards the contemporary in ‘Ready For Battle’. His band, Tribe, and a brass section, will accompany him on the Main Stage with a local group: that of Alberto García Iriarte and Leire Villanueva López, the duo Iseo Dodosound from Navarra. The originality and essence of their sound is highlighted in their latest masterpiece: ‘En la Tormenta’.

Busy Signal will round off the evening on the Main Stage. Considered one of the best artists of the Jamaican dancehall scene in recent years, his voice is a powerful roar that gets people dancing. Busy Signal has collaborated with mainstream artists such as Major Lazer.
Lion Stage will bring together, the North East Ska Jazz Orchestra from Northern Italy, a collective that brings together a passion for Jamaican music and big band jazz, and Wicked Dub Division, a powerful live dub quartet. Together they will create a unique show with the power of dub and the improvisational approach of jazz.

The young band Rudymentari, from the island of Menorca, will also be performing here, as a defender of reggae-dancehall in Catalan and committed messages against capitalism and fighting for social change. Joining this year’s festival in this turn towards hip-hop, is one of the great talents on the national scene; the Barcelona rapper Anier, with ‘Fuera De Juego’ and ‘Nanai’ among her most recent hits.

Australian Nattali Rize will bring the curtain down on the Lion Stage. She is a symbol of global reggae and heavily influenced by Jamaican reggae revival artists, the soloist’s most mature work is ‘Rebel Frequency’ (2017), which features collaborations with Julian Marley, Jah9 and Kabaka Pyramid.

The DanceHall stage will welcome Maureen from Martinique with her shatta; a musical style that originated in the Jamaican dancehall riddims and has developed as a form of expression for young black people in the French Caribbean. Northern Lights and Heavy Hammer will celebrate their respective 25-year careers together. Selecta Petty Fox, Untouchable Sound, Docta Rythm Selecta and Lampa Dread complete the line-up for the evening at the DanceHall area.

Meanwhile, the Green Light Sound System collective, well known to festival enthusiasts and the driving force of the Barcelona dub scene, will head up the Dub Academy on Saturday, 17th August, accompanied by the voices of Serena and Lasai, as well as Yugo Tagochi from Japan.

Oyofe comes to Jamkunda Stage from Barcelona with his show dedicated to promoting African urban dance, in collaboration with DJs RJayMusiq, Walter DJ and DJ Soffmae, and dancers Yemi Osokoya, Oulouy, Tyson and Mamy. To close the circle, the Jumping stage will add No Problem Collective and Vito War, along with its resident crew.

Inauguration of the Social Forum

The Social Forum 2024 will open its doors this Saturday in its new location: the Teatre Municipal de Benicàssim. The rapper Arkano; the film director and producer Chechu García Berlanga -nephew of the renowned Valencian filmmaker- as well as the journalists Ana Mansergas and Susana Golf, will discuss the potential for the arts to build utopias.

The session: ‘Music, art and utopia: inspirations for transforming society’, will start at 5.30 p.m. and, like the other debates, will be free of charge, although registration is necessary via the following link: https://linktr.ee/exoduscultura.

Reggae University programme and ‘Reggae Kids’ at Magicomundo

The tribute to Peter Tosh on the occasion of his 80th birthday will be the main focus of the Reggae University talk this Saturday. Co-founder of legendary band The Wailers, and later a successful solo artist, Peter Tosh continues to be an icon not only of reggae, but also of the struggle for marijuana legalisation, anti-nuclear weapon activism, the defence of human rights and the rejection of apartheid. His son Andrew Tosh and the musicians of his band will be in the limelight for the session ‘Memories of the Mystic Man’, a day after the tribute that the festival will pay to him on the Main Stage. To introduce the talk, the cult film ‘Stepping Razor: Red X’ by Nicholas Campbell will be screened, which is based on the singer’s own diaries and personal recordings.

Joining the Reggae University programme on 17th August with the talk ‘Freedom Taking Over’ is Harrison Stafford, from the Californian roots reggae band Groundation (invited to the Main Stage on the 18th), accompanied by Jim Fox, producer of many of the band’s albums.

This year, the space for children and family audiences Magicomundo is premiering a new proposal under the name ‘Reggae Kids’ (6pm), which will invite a surprise artist from the line-up to bring Jamaican music closer to the little ones, through an interactive activity with live performances of songs.

This Saturday, the 30 different food stands that make up the festival’s open-air restaurant and its colourful street market, full of signature products, will be in full swing. You can lose yourself in these areas, while the rest of the extra-musical areas continue their course, filling the concert venue with life and fun. Pachamama is also an area focused on consciousness, personal reconnection and connecting with the earth. What do the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement of Brazil, the Kurdistan Liberation Movement and the Zapatista Movement of Mexico all have in common? This will be discussed in the talk ‘Life in the centre, generating utopia’, by Entre Pobles (representing MST), Lêgerîn Azadî (a collective in solidarity with Kurdistan) and the Asamblea Solidaridad con Méjico (representing the Zapatista Movement). Together they will address things they share in common, such as the struggle for the defence of land, the empowerment of women in these movements, and their ability to transform dissent and anger into organised resistance and sustainable revolutionary change.