Overjam Reggae Festival 2023 ADD

OverJam Festival Announces Discontinuation

04/04/2024 by Gardy Stein

Losing loved ones is always hard, but especially so when they touched the hearts and souls of many. That was exactly what the OverJam Festival in Slovenia did for the last 11 years - bringing together thousands of people from all walks of life for a peaceful celebration of love, diversity and sweet Reggae music. Just last year, our OverJam Festival Report described the beauty and magic of the grounds near Tolmin where the festival took place annually, but now that's past tense, sadly.

The organizers have just published a long message on their Facebook page, both in Slovenian and in English, explaining the reasons for their decision to discontinue the festival, a decision taken with heavy hearts, no doubt. Reggaeville author Gardy Stein, who was invited to experience the 2023 edition live and direct, can confirm that each and every one involved did a splendid job, putting their heart and soul in the preparations - the reasons that led to the current situation were simply beyond their control. Thank you, Team OverJam, for all you did for Reggae music - we see you!

OFFICIAL STATEMENT
"Dear OverJam family! It's time for the organizers of your favorite Slovenian reggae festival to finally speak out... because the rumors spread by those who are neither organizers nor visitors greatly distort the actual story of why OverJam, the internationally recognized reggae festival, which is known all the way to Jamaica, died after twelve years.

The truth is much simpler than many opponents of festivals, competitors, or last but not least, creditors, some of whom this year (for the first time, and even temporarily) were left without payment. The implementation of the festival at Sotočje in Tolmin, despite all the non-financial complications, which were persistently taken care of by the alternating managements of the Municipality of Tolmin, has become more expensive by as much as 200% in the last three years. The production of the 11th performance thus cost the organizers EUR 600,000, despite the constant search for ways to reduce costs without reducing the quality of the experience of our loyal visitors. On the other hand, there were rarely more than 3,000, with only half of them buying festival tickets, and the rest waiting for the day that offered them the best program. So reggae organizers never knew until the last minute if a certain day would be covered or not ... and the whole festival actually hasn't been covered for several years. From where the shortfalls and minuses were covered all these years, none of the people who issued ridiculously high bills were interested, and they still don't care. And yet, the organizers, among whom no one drives in an expensive car, no one built a house, a weekend house or bought an apartment from the festival budget, time and time again found money to cover the bills of subcontractors and new and new taxes to the municipality of Tolmin. In the last year, the organizers also dutifully attended all the meetings of the group for assessing the impact of festivals on the Sotočje, where they came to Tolmin 36 times at their own expense. In vain. Regardless of all the active willingness to participate, the municipality raised its demands to the point where the production of the festival was already practically unfeasible and seriously interfered with the quality of the festival experience.

While security services and companies in the Vigrad group, which holds a monopoly on mobile toilets, were issuing invoices higher than EUR 60,000, the organizers negotiated with the artists to lower their prices in order to be able to start the planned production. It was downright embarrassing...but inevitable. Vigrad demanded full payment in advance and made it conditional on the removal and cleaning of mobile toilets and an additional monopoly on urgently needed containers. Despite making full payment in the 11th edition, they did NOT come to clean the toilets between PRH festival and OverJam festival, and then they turned off the phones for another 4 days because it was Saturday, Sunday and the new "solidarity" holiday. OverJam's production was forced to break into their storage containers in order to provide patrons with at least toilet paper, if not clean toilets. Of course, as with many other inconveniences, the visitor blames the organizer, and it is completely irrelevant that at OverJam we have been intensively raising the level of cleanliness for the last two years, both in the sanitary facilities and from an ecological point of view. One move by the company Vigrad ruined all the effort and forced our visitors into the shack.

Land owners have also been collecting large sums all these years, more than EUR 10,000 for a gravel parking lot. To the festival! All-year-round lawns, 2,000 - 5,000 EUR each. To the festival! The Tolmin municipal utility, which is probably the only one in the developed world that charges for the removal of packaging. Even though this packaging has been very, very few for a long time, as the Tolmin festivals took care of returnable glasses. And then the Slovenian journalists who wanted 6-8 accreditations, i.e. tickets at the organizer's expense, with which they could access the biggest stars in the reggae world... in exchange for an article or two... on a scene that is unfortunately far away far behind abroad, where reagge still lives... also thanks to the excellent work of the journalists. These same journalists know how to write a lot of negative things about the only festival that ever gave them access to world-famous musicians and such excellent interviews on Slovenian soil.

It is very Slovenian to spit on someone who built and maintained a wonderful reggae experience for many years, despite the abnormal amounts that were written into their accounts by individuals and companies who did not care one bit, not for the festival, not for the people, PEOPLE (!) standing on the other side. These people have been bringing in money from other projects for years and years...and THEREFORE they haven't built or created anything for themselves. Today, these same people are receiving calls with serious threats, court orders, and additionally they are being dragged on social networks, especially by those who know exactly what the situation is in Tolmin, what the situation is for the festival organizers and how much effort it really took invested in the realization of the OverJam festival in all these years. The nature of the Slovenians shows itself again, where it is necessary for the one who kneels down because he can't do it anymore, to rush in a little more and throw a couple more of stones ... why, already? Because then we feel better? Because we listened when these people asked for help? Because we understood when these people were changing business strategies to find a way to survive after all? Because we were there when it was necessary to buy a ticket at full price and pay for everything else, which the organizer was more than not forced to do in order to be able to stay in the festival area at all? Everyone should look at themselves. Let everyone look at what he did before it was too late. Everyone should look at what they have done, despite knowing what the situation was all along. Everyone should go back to their own beautiful world and clean up in front of their own doorstep... this is ancient wisdom. The organizers of OverJam are trying to solve a devastating situation and at the same time survive like humans. It doesn't happen overnight. It's not going right now. The organizers do not change their phone number and did not run away to the other side of the world. They are here and they are saving... as they saved the existence of the festival before, now they are saving the consequences of not being able to maintain their existence anymore. Anyone who can understand this, who can wait, who can maybe even help, should come forward. Only this one should come forward.

OverJam was made by people with heart. None of the organizers or the core team have ever earned more from this festival than the participation cost them, and that is nothing. What's more, they paid out of their own pockets, they paid from their other projects when they were successful. The companies earned it, the municipality of Tolmin, Tolmin firefighters, Tolmin fishermen, land owners, owners of appliances and hoteliers, toilet owners, or as they could rightly be called, SECRETS, earned money, individuals who conditioned their services uncompromisingly and, of course, indifferently to whether this will mean that there will be a festival or that there will be no more. And now he's gone. Because 0% support and 200% more expenses than revenue buried it, once and for all. Perhaps many do not feel anything about it. And yet... there was a community... a community that valued love, heart, music, nature and peace... a community that that week disconnected from the harsh capitalist reality and breathed a sigh of relief... this community too lost. And the story of OverJam is just a memory of Sotočje, when reggae was playing there and people were dancing, children were playing in the sand by the Soča River and it smelled of the "forbidden"... since forever.

Thank you to everyone who was and heartily supported this story. Thanks to everyone who lived OverJam with us. Thank you to all those who understand, who wait patiently, who do not aggravate the already existing hardship... and those who try to help in the situation. But maybe we'll meet somewhere else, in a different way. One love!

The OverJam Team"