As we told you last month (see the news of 13/12/2006), uncertainty was hanging over the 2007 edition of Ja'Sound. The doubt has now been lifted: the organisers published a statement yesterday saying that France's biggest reggae festival is being put "to sleep". The causes of this "cancellation" go back to the previous edition.
Following the many well-timed administrative and financial inspections (refreshment stalls, artists' contracts, volunteers, security staff, drugs, ticketing) at the festival site last summer, the municipality of Bagnols-sur Cèze, where the event has been held since 2004 (and before it the Jamaican Sunrise), was slow to renew its trust.
Yesterday's statement describes the uncertainty the organisers found themselves in, waiting for an official decision from the town hall that never came. Stating that such an event cannot be "prepared in a hurry or in doubt", and stressing that, under these conditions, it would be irresponsible to make "artistic and financial commitments", Ja'Sound has therefore simply been put "to sleep" for its fourth edition.