Here is the first piece of good news of 2008. As we announced (news of 13/11/2007), Ja'Sound will indeed be returning this summer. After a "dormant period", in its organisers' words, the reggae festival is coming back, having moved to the Ardèche.
It is the end of a saga in which the municipality of Bagnols-sur-Cèze kept making speeches of goodwill without backing them with action : faced with "the lack of reactivity on the other side", and after months of negotiations, Daniel Ventajol, boss of Tint'amart Productions, decided to move his festival, to the great displeasure of the local shopkeepers who had come out in favour of the event.
Exit Bagnols, hello Ardèche, in the commune of Bidon. On the site that hosted the Afrikabidon festival last year (an event "recommended" by Tint'amart Productions), Ja'Sound gets a 12-hectare field, which it will occupy from 6 to 9 August. On the programme : entertainment, workshops and concerts.
For its fourth edition, the festival keeps its roots / new roots anchoring and its opening Dub Academy night (this year with a "preference" for Jamaican sounds, the press release tells us), and will offer a few novelties, such as a night devoted to African artists and a "special place" for women.