words: Miss Eleanor (Bentwave)
With so many new festivals popping up, touting cutting edge artists, something that sets the BPM Festival apart from the rest is location, location, and location! On the new wave of destination festivals, BPM takes place on the sunny beaches of Playa del Carmen, Mexico. In its fourth year, the festival has quadrupled in programming and popularity. Speaking with many artists who played this year, all is agreed, they are all coming back and staying for the full week.
“It’s a magical place,” says Vito Tomasicchio, one of the BPM directors, “We found that some of the DJs who were coming here in past years were only coming for two or three days and now they have booked week flights. They’re here, celebrating and dancing with all the fans in the crowd. It’s been awesome.”
This year’s nighttime line-up was filled with a wide array of heavyweights such as Richie Hawtin, Loco Dice, Marco Carola, Paco Osuna, Damian Lazarus, Stacey Pullen, David Morales and Lee Burridge, as well as the latest hot commodities Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, Art Department, Dubfire, Steve Angello and many more. Saeed Younan, of Younan Music, who shared the spotlight with Behrouz on Day 2 at Brahma, describes the surroundings. “There are palm trees around us, blue crystal water, great music. It’s amazing, my first year here, I really love it,” he says. There was no shortage of talent in the daytime with labels such as Culprit, No. 19, My Favorite Robot and Hidden Recordings making waves with their own daytime parties. The vibe of the festival slows down rightfully so to playa speed and creates a chill dreamlike atmosphere.
“I’ve been here since Monday. The parties I’ve played at were amazing,” says Lee Burridge, chatting cabana side at Mamitas, one of the ideal beach venues on Day 6. “It’s been really nice and I get to see other DJs and a lot of my friends that I don’t see enough so… this year, AMAZING!” Lee continues, “and I think the festival has already started to expand in all sorts of directions. So yeah its nice to see the festival get the success it deserves. I think there is a lot of love here and it’s coming back to them. They have been putting it all out there for 4 years now and they are getting some back.”
The BPM festival does what some festivals have lost over the years, brings the fun back to the music. Having a quick chat with the Crosstown Rebels crew (Damian Lazarus, Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler) right before the Rebel Cave party on one of the last days of BPM, you could feel the enthusiasm in the air. Each having played in Playa Del Carmen before, but of their first BPM festival, Damian, the Crosstown Rebels head says “We are quite excited about the party tonight.” With one of the more exotic locales, Alux Cave (with growing stalactites included) it was easy to see why.
So what can we expect for 2012?
‘More parties, probably expect a stage somewhere on the beach, and you know we are going to have a couple big name DJs who are going to come.’ Tomasicchio says coyly.
looks pretty sweet!