Reggae Roots Rotterdam brings Burning Spear, Koffee to Zuiderpark
Burning Spear, Koffee and Barrington Levy will anchor a new Zuiderpark reggae gathering built to pull Rotterdam’s scene back together.
Reggae Roots Rotterdam will try to do something bigger than launch another summer festival: it will bring reggae back to Zuiderpark and turn the park into a full-day meeting point for Dutch and Caribbean audiences. The new event is set for Saturday, July 4, 2026, in Rotterdam, with the entrance next to Ahoy, and its own site says it is meant to “bring Reggae back to Zuiderpark Rotterdam.”
Burning Spear, Julian Marley & The Uprising, Sizzla Kalonji, Original Koffee, Barrington Levy, Postmen, Queen Ifrica, Rocky Dawuni and Yellowman & Upper Cut Band give the debut real weight. The lineup also reaches deeper into the scene with Meta and The Cornerstones, Reemah, DEI.3AVU, Rubera Roots Band, Imishango, Jabesh D.T.A, ZED I, JR Kenna, Binti Afrika and Stoneface Priest. Festival listings frame the day as more than a concert, with live music, soundsystem culture, dancehall, workshops, food and community programming spread across the site. The festival’s own line, “Feel the love. Feel Reggae Roots,” matches that pitch.
Tickets are set at €60 plus a €4.50 service fee for ages 12 and up, while children 0 to 11 need a free kids ticket. The info page says parking will be limited and recommends public transport; Zuidplein Station is about a 900-meter walk from the entrance. That makes the logistics as practical as the programming, especially for a festival that is clearly expecting a broad turnout.
The local pitch is just as important as the billing. Uitagenda Rotterdam says the organizers, known from CuliNESSE, want Reggae Roots Rotterdam to grow into an annual summer tradition, and city listings put the park’s capacity at about 10,000 visitors, with another noting up to 15,000. Brendo Festen put it simply: “Rotterdam has a special bond with reggae.” With Zuiderpark’s music history and names like Bob Marley already tied to the site, this first edition is being framed as the start of something the city has been missing, not just another date on the calendar.
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