( Fresh Air), fun, difference, friends and an adventure to tell about vacations. It came to have an audience— per official sources— of twenty thousand people. 20,000!!! Do you think it’ s a low audience? It frightened us, it excited us, it made us believe that it was possible to be happy in Cuba. Taking advantages of a tropical island located in the privileged Caribbean area, Rotilla was born on the small beach that gave it its name, to the east of the capital. Then it moved to Playa Jibacoa and there took place the event, for three long( for the organizers) days and nights during an August weekend. We came two days earlier to set up the stages, which would total six, each of them with peculiar features. We had to clean the beach, fumigate, clear the mouth of the river and organize the logistic details, which were increasing at high speed every year. After the festival, we stayed until leaving the area well-ordered and neat, and returned later to be sure that the cleaning companies had sanitized the beach with their machines. The collaboration of friends and volunteers from community groups( now disintegrated), the work of a small but efficient security team, the willingness of the artists we were summoning to perform for free, as well as a loyal group of followers allowed us to build one of the most striking events among the young people. They came from all the provinces. We tried to summon the youngest DJ ' s and to reserve a space for everyone at any time. The festival acquired an international connotation with artists from Venezuela, England and Brazil. We added other musical genres and hip hop looked great. On the stages at Rotilla, multitudinous and unique concerts were held; others got lost along the way. The agreements with artists were always for free. We only guaranteed food, transportation and stay in a VIP room enabled for their comfort. Our status as independent sponsors did not give the opportunity to pay them for their presentations, but it was gratifying to make them feel themselves in their space, to offer the same to everyone, to give them something different and to know it’ s was worth. The growth of Rotilla began to be remarkable in 2008, but the crucial year was 2009. We convened a press conference, in our own name, with neither official institutions nor official representatives. We were the first independent project that dared to do that, although we had no notion about what we were doing. We told both the national and international press— printed and digital— and the artists and organizers, and everyone, everyone involved:“ Listen to our proposal, participate, come!". It’ s impossible to forget the moment we understood that the line of young people who came to settle on the beach was endless. There were our looks, our complicity, our strength. We slept only two hours during more than 72 hours of hard work. Our adrenaline and Red Bull kept us awake. Our responsibility was not only that the artists punctually arrived on stage. There was a lot of people making claims, people who will drink and stay in the same space for more than 24 hours in virtue of our idea. Rotilla was lucky. The violence rates were negligible. The most complicated issues regarding the public was the ingestion of alcoholic beverages and the lack of food combined with an excess of party. The stores and business— whether state or private— at and around the adjacent city Santa Cruz del Norte ran completely out of supplies. In three days, they outnumbered by far the sales during the rest of the year. But nothing that could be so good was well received. In 2011, when we arrived at the badluck-number edition 13, the festival was stolen. 2 We naively believed that there would be
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