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Music

Come For The House Music, Stay For The Sunrise: 10 Days at Mexico's BPM Festival

Marjana goes one deeper on the Mayan Riviera.

Photos by Marjana Jaidi for Cultivora

Every January, BPM Festival takes over a Playa del Carmen resort on the eastern coast of Mexico for 10 days of four-to-the-floor machine music. I'll admit something up front: deep house isn't my thing—or at least, it wasn't before BPM. But my company, Cultivora, produced this year's official BPM Festival Guide, so after months of preparation, it only seemed fitting that I go. Secondly, I'm all about festivals. Thirdly, it's in a beautiful tropical paradise. But getting there in winter can be pretty tough—after massive travel delays due to snow storms in less awesome places and lost luggage, I finally made it to Playa del Carmen. But there was one more obstacle…

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It was wet and gloomy for most of the week, but not a huge issue. It's never rained in BPM's six years, but they were well prepared, quickly adding tents where needed. The rain didn't impede us from having a good time, and its cool-down properties were a plus.

On Tuesday, I made my way to Life + Death at Mamita's Beach Club, where Thugfucker was kicking off the day in a festive sombrero.

The Life and Death family was out in full effect. Above, from left: Karm from Tale of Us, DJ Tennis, Hamilton Wright from Liaison Artists, and a guest (anyone else getting a subtle photobomb vibe?)

On Wednesday, Dirtybird took over Mamita's for the week's first epic event, with label don Claude Vonstroke closing out. The party was a great time… just ask these BPMers.

One of the people I met at the Dirtybird showcase was Louis Catalano from Long Island, New York. (No relation to Jordan Catalano.) We bonded over his Electric Forrest t-shirt, then it turned out we had some friends in common.

THUMP: Why did you come to BPM?
Louis: I came to BPM this year because I have a strong passion for music and culture, and where's BPM? Mexico. South America. Culture.

You know that Mexico is in North America, right?
To be honest, I do, but the fact is that we're on one planet, there is no separation, there is no lines, there is no borders. North America, South America, Mexico, Europe—it's one, and that's all that matters. One love.

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Guess the Long Island school system doesn't have a strong geography program…
Anyway, that night was a blur. On Thursday, we woke up bright and early (and by bright and early, I mean 3pm) to interview Adrian Alahs and Adrian Naird aka Adriatique.

THUMP: How does traveling affect your creative process?
Naird: I need my own studio to work. It's really hard to work on a plane because I'm always nervous when I'm traveling.
Alahs: We try to figure out some time to spend in the studio besides touring. It's how you organize it. Also, you have new inspirations from traveling from the people you get to know, so it's a good thing to come back home and spend time in the studio.
Do you collaborate with other artists when you're on tour?
Yeah definitely. In LA we're definitely going to hook up with the Droog guys from Culprit LA. From what we've heard they have quite a cool studio there with a lot of stuff, and we definitely want to try some things out.

At BPM, all of the venues are very close together (save a few pop-up events) so you can see a bunch of different artists. For BPM's seventh night, I took in six DJs at three different venues: Guti at Coco Maya for Planet E Meets This & That, Adriatique at Blue Parrot for the Diynamic showcase, Nicole Moudaber at Lost Avenue for In the Mood, back to Blue Parrot for Solomun, and a final stop at Coco Maya before closing out the night back at Lost Avenue for Chris Liebing. Then I caught my first BPM sunrise…

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… but not everyone was as thrilled to be up all night 'til sunrise, as you can see below.

The next day, I headed to Kool Beach to catch the end of Never Say Never. Sasha was behind the decks and I met (from left) Bianca, Alejandro, Chanel, and Arian from Montreal.

THUMP: What advice do you have for people coming to BPM next year?
Chanel: Mucho alcohol! Mucho! Arriba, arriba, abajo, al centro…
Arian: You gotta look up the DJs and know when they're playing at exactly what time…
Chanel: Get a wristband!
Alejandro: My advice is vodka, tequila, rum…
Chanel: Wristbands!
Alejandro: … gin, whatever you want. Come here! We're gonna have a good time

For Friday night's festivities, there was only one option in my mind: the Innervisions party at Blue Venado. Dixon—who founded Innervisions with Åme in 2005—played my favorite set of the week (listen to his Essential Mix, and you'll hear why). The venue was in Punta Venado, five miles outside of Playa del Carmen. To get there, you have to drive half a mile on a bumpy jungle road, then walk or take a shuttle for another stretch. It was worth it. Below is a photo of the venue I took after the festivities.

As Dixon played, the sky began to hint at sunrise.

Several BPM artists came out for the occasion, including Lauren Lane, left.

The view—and the overall experience—was surreal. I felt unbelievably lucky to be there at that moment.

After two consecutive sunrises, I can't believe I had the energy for a day party, but I managed to drag myself to All Day I Dream with Lee Burridge. Here he is in a wild mesh outfit.

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One extended power nap later, and I was ready to hit Day Zero, an off-BPM event set against the backdrop of Mayan ruins (replicas, I later learned).

I perched on one of three Mayan structures for my third consecutive sunrise, soundtracked by Damian Lazarus. After 10 days, three all-nighters, 2000+ photos, and zero drugs, my last day at BPM felt like this:

But I really looked like this! See, sunglasses cure everything.

For more of Marjana's wild times from BPM, check out all her coverage on Cultivora.