Why did Sunwaves leave Romania?

Sunwaves spent eighteen years on the Black Sea, from its first edition on Mamaia beach in 2007 through SW35 in May 2025. Then it stopped. Organizers closed out the Romanian run citing friction with local police and Romanian authorities they said was "out of our control," and moved the festival abroad for good. It was a hard exit for a festival that had built its entire identity around one specific stretch of Romanian coastline: five days and nights, non-stop, on the sand.

By September 2025, Sunwaves had a new base: Roquetas de Mar, on Spain's Almeria coast, for SW36. September 2026's SW38 is the second consecutive edition to run there, at Las Salinas de San Rafael, a stretch of salt flats and beach outside the town. The switch from Black Sea to Mediterranean isn't cosmetic. It's the clearest signal yet that Sunwaves considers Spain its new home, not a one-off replacement gig.

Who's playing SW38?

The lineup leans hard on the scene that made Sunwaves what it is. Rhadoo, a co-founder of the Bucharest label a:rpia:r and one of the architects of rominimal, tops a bill built around the sound the festival helped create. Traumer and Dyed Soundorom, both longtime fixtures of the Sunwaves and ARPIAR orbit, round out the founding-era presence.

Outside that circle, SW38 pulls in names with real crossover pull: Jamie Jones and Paco Osuna, plus Joseph Capriati, alongside Gescu, Marco Faraone, Shonky, Arapu, Priku, Mahony, Manda Moor, Melanie Ribbe, Alexis Cabrera and Dan Andrei on a bill organizers say is still growing. Manda Moor plays an extended set starting at 4am on September 3.

"Unfortunately things are the way that they are and it's out of our control." - Sunwaves organizers, on ending the festival's Romanian run

Does the format survive the move?

Sunwaves was never about a single stage or a headliner slot, it was about a non-stop run, four nights bleeding into a fifth morning, one crowd staying put instead of festival-hopping between stages. SW38 keeps that structure: doors open 10pm Thursday, September 3, and the music doesn't stop until 10am Monday, September 7. Whether a salt flat outside Almeria can replicate what two decades on a Romanian beach built is still an open question. A second consecutive edition in the same Spanish town is at least a bet that it can.