Gaio di Spilimbergo, Pordenone province, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. This small town in Northern Italy between Venice and Udine is the starting point for an adventure called Rototom Sunsplash. On 13 December 1991 the Rototom Cultural Association was born and out of it the nightclub of the same name, where everything happened, was created. An alternative music scene, an authentic sound lab, and a stop off point for some of the greatest exponents on the world music scene: from punk to rock, reggae, indie and electronic music. A fusion that that is explained by the instrument that gave it its name: Rototom, able to create different sounds, just like the atmospheres that were created in this venue. On moving in 1997 to what would be its second headquarters in Zoppola, the Rototom Club spreads all of these genres in three different rooms all connected to create a “city of music”. One dedicated to rock, pop and rap; a second to reggae and African music where the typical sounds of the Sunsplash were and another dedicated to electronic music. Over the next nine years, it hosted shows by the Ramones (1993), Massive Attack (1998), Bad Religion, NOFX, Suede or Soul Fly; legends like the father of Afro beat Fela Kuti and reggae greats such as Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, Inner Circle, U-Roy, Yellowman, Itals, Meditations, Junior Reid, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Misty in Roots, Gladiators, Pablo Moses, Shaggy, Buju Banton among many others.

The Rototom Association was characterized by moving from words to deeds under the repressive context in which the region of Friuli was culturally submerged, where the musical and cultural network had been dismantled to prejudice mainly the young people. The collective counterbalanced this suppression of culture by organizing hundreds of concerts, occupying an abandoned factory (Cerit)to create an exhibition, music, debates and film, by organizing peace rallies, parties in defence LGBT rights and creating the world’s largest reggae festival, the Rototom Sunsplash.

The second phase of Rototom Sunsplash has but one name: the camping Girasole. Summer 1998. Unable to absorb the capacity, the festival moves to Latisana Maritima near Lignano, near the tourist resort town of Venice.

The Sunsplash is already presented with a structure that evokes the current one: here it outlines a real reggae city with three stages and complementary cultural areas capable of hosting thousands of inhabitants: in this new venue the 8,000 attendees of last year in Gaio are transformed into 20,000. The event goes from three to four days and with more scheduled timetable. In Lignano the Rototom Sunsplash becomes a mass phenomenon, a pole of attraction for those beyond that of the music or to simply watch the live show of a certain artist, it married with a philosophy that is intrinsic to reggae: peace, love and respect.

The level that the festival reached is reflected in several anecdotes, like for instance that in its premiere in Lignano, the restaurants’ stocks ran out the first day of the four day event. Or that the beer went from being measured in barrels, like in Gaio, to being measured in tanks. Also within this framework of explosion of the festival fits the first international broadcasting of the concerts via streaming (1999, through Arcoiris TV), the launching of the Reggae Train, with departure from Rome and stops in Florence, Bologna, Padua and Venice, or a free 24-hour bus service from Lignano and a nursery service for children.

It is also here that the ‘Italian Reggae Award‘ is first organised. The director of the Jamaican Reggae Sunsplash, Mr. Rae Barret, was invited to choose live, among the best Italian bands, the group that for the first time will represent Italy at the festival in Jamaica. Reggae National Tickets took the honors, and that marked the launch of the musical career on the Caribbean island of its singer, Alborosie, whose career has been linked to Rototom Sunsplash since its inception.

In the summer of 2000 the Rototom Sunsplash changed its surrounds once again and moved its headquarters to Osoppo (Udine). If Lignano represented its ‘professionalization’ and consolidation as a cultural and musical landmark event in Italy, Osoppo is crucial to its growth from national meeting to being a European festival. Its proximity to Austria, Slovenia and Germany expanded the boundaries of the event and balanced the handicap of its geographic isolation in a small town of 3,000 inhabitants.

In the 250,000 square meters of the Rivellino Park in Osoppo the festival assumes the dimensions that have accompanied it to the present. It is reconfigured as a holiday destination to spend four to eight days (and subsequently nine and ten days) with a clear differentiation between the festival with ‘day’ activities -the concerts are more spaced out- and night, with all its musical prominence. The camping area becomes a highlight, in the natural park at the foot of the Alps, which favours moments for meeting and socializing among the thousands of festival goers from around the world -150,000 people on average for ten consecutive editions in Osoppo- and helps forge a sense of belonging to the Rototom family. And to create the atmosphere of pacifism, tolerance and multiculturalism that define the event. The number of stages increase (Showcase, Dub Room) and the line-up to continues to add even more of the greats of the reggae scene, with exclusive events in Europe, and the rising stars of the Jamaican genre.

Extra-musical areas take shape, supported by the spaciousness of the space: the Social Forum, dedicated to Talks and debates with sociologists, politicians, religious and intellectuals; African Village and Vivir la Energía -today Pachamama- with capoeira sessions, percussion and African dance courses; spaces for meditation or seminars dedicated to natural medicine and Rasta philosophy; or areas with creative workshops for children. The Reggae University is also gestated, for the exchange of experiences between artists and audience.

Osoppo has also brought with it a change in the organizational structure, with more specialized teams – the Media Office was created – that include European collaborators and an unquestionable international projection linked to the increase in foreign audiences. The website is translated into seven languages (English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian and German) and bus routes are organized between various countries.

The promotion of reggae culture is reflected in initiatives such as the European Reggae Contest aimed at gathering talent emerging bands (2002-2015).

The self-management system of the Rototom Sunsplash project -based on obtaining income solely through ticket sales and the absence of effective sponsors- proves itself in this phase. In 2003, a decade after its launch, the festival zeroed debt. That same year leaves us a concert to remember, for its hypnotism and intensity, in the history of Rototom: that of Burning Spear.

The golden moment of the Rototom Sunsplash for music, public and projection refers to is darkened by the political and judicial persecution that it begins to suffer from the government in the hands of the right. The fusion and coexistence of cultures that the event promoted clashed with the policy of closing borders that formed a part of the nationalist discourse of Silvio Berlusconi and his Northern League partners. The situation became more complicated following the adoption in 2006 of the Fini-Giovanardi law, declared unconstitutional in 2014 and, which, among other things, proposed up ten years in prison for tolerating the use of drugs such as cannabis inside spaces with leisure and cultural activities. The law criminalized the event –of which it was acquitted in 2015- to the point that it was forced to move from Italy to Spain.

Rototom Sunsplash begins its exodus, and as in all exodus, there is a corresponding promised land. The festival finds it in Spain, in Benicasim (Castellón) to be specific.

On July 12, 2009 the last edition in Osoppo ends and on the 24th of that same month an Italian expedition of five head to Spain. After seven months of searching and tours of Barcelona, Madrid, Salamanca and even to Galicia and the Basque Country, in February 2010 an agreement with the city of Benicasim it is reached. The extensive camping area attached to the Benicàssim concerts venue is what shifts the balance. The town in Castellon, that summer hosted the first Spanish Rototom, the 17th in its history, and is where the event continues today.

Benicasim represents the consolidation of the macrostructure formed in Italy, which continues to grow: more stages and extra-musical areas such as Rototom Circus, in a space of 500,000 square meters that doubles the reggae town created in Osoppo.

Its public also grows, with an average of 230,000 people per edition and which has also seen its familiar and child friendly profile grow.

In 2011, Rototom Sunsplash was named Concert of the Year at the International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA), in recognition of its excellence and contribution to the global reggae scene.

It represents a jump from European to world event. Spain opens the doors for the Rototom Sunsplash to Latin America and it becomes even more international. Proof of this is the celebration from 2011 to 2015 of the Reggae Contest Latino and implementation of festival’s global presentation road shows.

Benicàssim adds to the festival’s lure with beaches, which reinforces its format as a holiday destination during the event’s week of celebrations. Anecdotally, it leaves the weather concerns of the pre-Alpine climate in Osoppo and the habitual wind and torrential rain of the environment in Friuli.

The new and current phase of the festival has maintained the principles and values that guide the actions of the Rototom Sunsplash, as an emblem of defending peace, environment, human rights and sustainable development. The slogan linked to the macro-event, another world is possible, is still alive in Benicàssim as is the community born around reggae and festival.

In 2018, UNESCO declared reggae an Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Jamaica’s Minister of Culture highlighted Rototom Sunsplash as an example of reggae’s spirit and global reach:

Also in 2018, coinciding with its 25th anniversary, Rototom Sunsplash received the “Rototom Africa Peace Award” granted by United Religions Initiative-Africa (URI-Africa), in recognition of its work in favor of peace, coexistence and intercultural dialogue.

In 2023, the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) awarded Rototom Sunsplash the Extraordinary Impact on the Reggae Industry Promoter Award for its outstanding contribution to the global promotion of reggae.