The Rocanrola Festival is a landmark event in Alicante, drawing a crowd that reached twenty thousand attendees over two days. It stands as the city’s largest music gathering and has earned recognition as a leading national platform for rap, attracting top artists and a devoted fan base. The festival’s roster has featured prominent figures such as Natos, Waor, Kase, SFDK, Ayax and Prok, FernandoCosta, Nach, Juancho Marqués, and Kaze, underscoring its status as a premier showcase for the genre.
With a strong focus on a younger audience, the festival kicked off at Rabasa Multispace on Friday afternoon. The event unfolds across three stages, a spacious dining area offering vegan options, several recreational zones, a VIP area with prime visibility, and a campsite capable of hosting four thousand people. Music Productions 2021, led by Enric Pellicer, is the company behind the organization, driving the festival’s vision and operations.
The festival’s organizers report an economic impact exceeding six million euros and near full hotel occupancy in Alicante during the event week. Plans for the next edition are already underway. The team credits the festival’s early success to a dedicated crew that navigated a two-year hiatus and to the artists who aligned their tours with a poster that positioned Rocanrola as a marquee rap event capable of selling twenty thousand tickets. This sentiment is echoed by members of the organizing team, who acknowledge the confidence and collaboration that carried the project from its 2019 inception to its present scale.
There is a belief that artistic challenges must continue to rise to new heights while public funding plays a key role. The festival is viewed as a lasting cultural fixture that appeals to a diverse audience, one that requires sustained support to maintain momentum and compete with other cities and regions. Rocanrola’s collaboration with the Alicante City & Beach Tourist Board is highlighted as a strategic partnership that helps amplify its reach and impact.
The year 2022 marked another high point for Spain’s festival sector, reinforcing a trend of record attendance. The festival landscape had already demonstrated resilience in 2019, when the sector saw a wave of growth despite earlier disruptions. The Rocanrola experience begins early, with Rabasa’s campus transforming into a vibrant hub that stretches toward surrounding roads and even toward the university. Tens of thousands of young people gather in tents, embracing a two-day camp that becomes a lively, collective moment in the city. By late afternoon, the venue’s influx creates noticeable traffic patterns on nearby routes.
As one of the scene’s most observed voices, Spanish freestyler Errecé highlights rap as a form of popular expression that resonates far beyond the stage. Rocanrola distinguishes itself by blending two of rap’s strongest currents, allowing performances to flow from one set to the next without overlap. This seamless continuity is part of what producers and artists describe as a defining strength of the festival, enabling acts to deliver memorable moments that linger with attendees long after the final bow. In the hours leading up to the closing, performers and audiences alike look forward to what promises to be a remarkable night, with artists anticipating a show that exceeds personal expectations.