Rototom Sunsplash is a large European reggae festival founded in 1994 in Gaio di Spilimbergo (Pordenone, Italy), and since 2010 held in Benicàssim, a few miles north of Valencia, Spain.

The birthplace of the festival is the small Italian town of Gaio di Spilimbergo, province of Pordenone, in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, close to Venice.

Over the next nine years, the club hosted performances by the Ramones (1993), Massive Attack (1998), Bad Religion, NOFX, Suede, and Soulfly; legends like the father of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, and reggae greats such as Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, Inner Circle, U-Roy, Yellowman, Itals, The Meditations, Junior Reid, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Misty in Roots, The Gladiators (band), Pablo Moses, Shaggy (musician), and Buju Banton, among many others.

[1] In the summer of 1998, unable to accommodate the number of people attending the festival, the organizers decided to move it to Latisana Marittima, in the province of Udine.

Rototom Sunsplash continued to fund itself solely through ticket sales, with a complete absence of commercial sponsors, and by 2003, almost a decade after its launch, the festival had zero debt.

Beginning in 2006, the festival began to receive criticism as well as some opposition from several Italian politicians after the adoption of the Fini-Giovanardi law, declared unconstitutional in 2014,[7] which, among other things, proposed up to ten years in prison for the use of recreational drugs such as cannabis inside spaces with leisure and cultural activities.

The festival was no longer just a European attraction; fans from all over the world were attending, and the Spanish-speaking venue was especially a draw for reggae aficionados from Latin-American countries.

[11] Another major selling point for the festival was its new beach location, providing a sharp contrast to its previous Alpine setting, which was usually colder and often windy and rainy.