Rototom Festival is preparing for a move with a flourish this year. After 16 years in Italy, Europe's biggest festival (130,000 festivalgoers on average each year) has decided to pack its bags for Spain.
The press release pulls no punches. Defending values such as peace, the environment, human rights and sustainable development, under a banner proclaiming that "another world is possible", the festival now considers itself persona non grata in its home country.
The release denounces "a growing drift of intolerance in Italian politics towards these kinds of values, but above all towards any model of society that values the meeting of cultures and a multiracial society".
Destination Spain, then, a country considered "more democratic and culturally open", and the small town of Benicassim, a site well known to rock fans for its annual festival, where Rototom hopes to find a less hostile climate. The organisers also intend to "give an impetus to the Spanish reggae scene" and to build on "the close relationship between Spain and the Americas and the strong presence of reggae in the Spanish-speaking countries across the Atlantic."
Rototom Festival will take place from 21 to 28 August 2010. Line-up to be announced.