Rotilla: Why did the Cuban regime kidnap a music festival?

Fear of Freedom


The news is impacting around the world and has been picked up by both CNN and EFE that the organizers of the Rotilla music and art festival in Cuba have issued a communique stating that
"Estaban Lazo, together with the Minister of Culture in the person of the vice-minister Fernando Rojas, seek to kidnap the event from the founders and organizers and carry it out through state institutions seizing and plagiarizing this our name, the days selected and our convoking of the festival."

The Rotilla Festival bills itself as an event that "mostly seeks to promote the development of electronic music and vanguard art on the island of Cuba." Its concept is a beach party surrounded by nature and is celebrated during August over the course of three days and nights. The organization and logistics of the festival have been carried in an independent manner not linked to any official institutions. Entrance is free and the festival is non-profit only seeking artistic and civic values in the country. Its been described as a Cuban version of Woodstock.

3 days without stopping

The festival has been around for more than a decade. It even has an online presence which is extremely difficult to come by in Cuba. It started in 1998 in Havana province in Santa Cruz del Norte and has grown steadily until now.

A clue as to why regime officials would want to take over the festival can be found in the mini documentary "Free Air" by Sandra Cordero which was filmed, apparently at Jibacoa beach in Cuba between August 6-8, 2010.



Estaban Lazo at 67 years old makes him one of the younger leaders of an extremely old regime that distrusts youth. The bottom line is the geriatric dictatorship in Cuba fears freedom. It fears young people organizing themselves and having a good time with music, film, art and culture. In 1969 in the United States the hippies attended three days of music at Wood Stock and they had a slogan: Don't trust anyone over 30. In Cuba today it appears that the Cuban dictatorship has its own slogan: Don't trust anyone under 65.