Within the diversity of the reggae macro-city, the line-up includes the chill flamenco style of the Spanish band Chambao, along with a wink to jazz with Samuel Blaser’s special show in homage to Skatalites composer Don Drummmond
After the first three intense days, which have so far brought together 100,000 Jamaican music lovers from up to 70 countries in Benicàssim, Rototom Sunsplash festival sees in the last part of its 29th edition, ‘The Power of Utopia’, this Tuesday August 20th, with a line-up that would make the king of reggae proud.
In the year of the premiere of the biopic ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ and coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the iconic compilation album ‘Legend’, The Wailers have embarked on an extensive world tour that also stops at the festival to play the best songs from this album, Bob Marley’s best-selling album live on the Main Stage. The concert will be a tribute to the greatest reggae artist in history; a figure who has always been present at Rototom Sunsplash.
Johnny Clarke, another of the greats of the reggae scene and one of the most historic roots reggae artists still active, will be joining the Main Stage alongside the London-based Dub Asante Band ft Matic Horns.
There’s more. Etana‘s arrival onto the Jamaican and global reggae scene in 2008 was a real breath of fresh air. Her love songs, but also those with realistic lyrics about the harshness of the ghetto, mark the career of this singer. In recent years, she has moved closer to the sounds of Afrobeats through collaborations with renowned African artists such as Stonebwoy and Naiboi.
The Main Stage will also feature Chambao on Tuesday night, representing the Spanish scene. After a five-year hiatus, the band’s return in 2023 was a real surprise. They’ve achieved fame by mixing traditional flamenco with relaxed electronic music rhythms and creating a genre called ‘flamenco chill’. Their latest album, ‘En La Cresta Del Ahora’, hits the same high standards of their previous discography.
A nod to jazz on the Lion Stage
Rototom Sunsplash will host the first jazz show of the festival -with touches of ska- this Tuesday, August 20th: ‘Samuel Blaser Routes-A Tribute to the Music of Don Drummond’. It will be a tribute to the legacy of Don Drummond, the legendary Jamaican trombonist, who was member and composer of many songs by the band Skatalites, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2024. Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser is heading up this tribute and showcasing his renowned tribute album ‘Routes’. For this unique show, Samuel Blaser has created a band with great international jazz musicians: the quintet that he leads and which is joined by Cuban violinist Omar Puente, Alex Wilson (keyboards), Colin McNeish (bass), and Kenrick Rowe (drums).
Fresh Jamaican talent arrives twice the same evening at the Lion Stage. On the one hand, the young Jah Lil. His inspiration comes from icons such as Bob Marley and Burning Spear, but also from the sounds of American soul, as reflected in his debut album, ‘Can A Man Cry’. On the other hand, Khalia is considered the new voice of global reggae. Born in Jamaica but based in London since the age of six, she was discovered artistically in 2016 by Shaggy and producer Tony Kelly. Her seductive vocal style is at home on reggae rhythms, pop songs and soul ballads.
Jesse Royal, one of the contemporary Jamaican artists most closely linked to the reggae tradition, will close the Lion Stage line-up on Tuesday 20th. Growing up artistically alongside Daniel ‘Bambataa’ Marley, son of Ziggy and grandson of Bob Marley, his meeting with producer Fatis Burrell was key to him maturating as an artist.
The DanceHall stage welcomes UK jungle scene icon General Levy, while the Dub Academy raises its profile as a global gathering of sound system culture with Digital Dubs from Rio de Janeiro.
Without leaving the musical agenda, the Reggae University will bring together a large part of the line-up of artists on Tuesday. It will do so in the session ‘Tings Time. Reggae Today’, which will bring together Jesse Royal, one of the ambassadors of the reggae revival, and the emerging talent of Khalia, Jah Lil and Naomi Cowan to x-ray the current state of reggae and its immediate future.
The House of Rastafari – an area of the festival where you can learn more about Rastafari culture through daily activities – will host the seminar ‘The Rastafari Sound System revolution’, with the participation of the well-known record producer Kibir La Amlak (who will be at Dub Academy on the night of the 21st), and the Rasta ambassador Iqulah Rastafari. Like every evening, Reggae University will open its agenda with film screenings, this time of the short films ‘Word, Sound Power’ (El Gran Latido, Colombia, 10′); ‘Fear Not’ (10. 000 Lions, India, 11′); ‘Do It Herself: The Honey Trap Sound System Story’ (Honey Trap, Australia, 11′); ‘Street, Gender and Sound: The Feminine Hifi Experience’ (Feminine HiFi, Brazil, 10′); ‘Spiritual Bass’ (Monkey Sound System, India, 10′); and ‘Survival: A Rasta Sound System Gathering’ (Kebra Ethiopia, South Africa, 10′).
Much more activity during the day and something for everyone
The day at Jamkunda will be musical and reflective. In the afternoon, in the Ataya debate area of this space, the theme ‘The Power of Utopia’ will take the stage on 20th August with Loueila Mint, lawyer and human rights activist of Sahrawi origin; and Sani Ladan, a writer and expert in geopolitics and international relations from Cameroon. The challenge of the session will be to analyse how physical borders and occupations affect communities such as the Sahara and Palestine, and to reflect on how communities can organise to stop human rights abuses and violations and bring about decisive change.
Later in the evening, Jamkunda Stage will take over the Afrovillage with Dj Obas and Dj Kiky from Rome.
Palestine will also be present at Magicomundo with the presentation of ‘I malgrat tot, Palestina’ by Zoo Il-lustrat, a collection of songs by the Valencian band Zoo, illustrated and with eductional material. The publication tells the story of the occupation of Palestine through the eyes of Amira and Ava, two girls separated by a conflict that has lasted too long.
The dilemma ‘People vs. machines: the last frontier of rights’ will come to the Social Forum. The session will explore the ethical limits of science and technology in the face of the dizzyingly fast evolution of Artificial Intelligence, which has raised the alarm among scientists and humanists about the threats it can unleash for the human condition itself.
The aim of the talk will be generating the collective awareness necessary to guide the future of AI with criteria of equity and transparency, to claim new human rights in line with the development of this techno-scientific revolution and to protect and incorporate neuro-rights as a guarantee to defend freedom in that final frontier of human dignity that is the brain. This fourth session will invite two experts in the field. Presented by Ana Noguera, PhD in Philosophy and member of the Consell Valencià de Cultura, the debate will bring together Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and world leader in the field of non-invasive brain stimulation and neuro-rights Álvaro Pascual-Leone; and AI expert Andrés Pedreño, Professor of Applied Economics, honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University and former rector of the University of Alicante.
The programme of the festival’s science outreach area, Discovery Lab, will include the talk ‘Why did the dinosaurs become extinct’, with the Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Valencia, Vicent J. Martínez, and ‘The awakening of the monster Cthulhu’, with Cristina Romera-Castillo, oceanographer at the Institute of Marine Sciences of Barcelona (ICM-CSIS). Meanwhile, the mathematician and presenter of the programme ‘Órbita Laika’, Eduardo Sáenz de Cabezón, together with Albert Aparici, a populariser from the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC) of the CSIC and the University of Valencia, will lead the session ‘When the physicist meets the mathematician’.