WELCOME to Festival Fever, a place where we strive to present you the most notorious and prolific electronic dance music events around the globe. This month we are checking out the sixth edition of BPM Festival, 10 days of raw house and techno music on the beaches of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. This annual world-class festival kicks off on the 4th of January and has been garnering significantly more attention every year with its unique vibe. Running from the first Friday of the year until Sunday January 13th, fans will have ample time to explore a range of new sounds, a number of amazing venues, and even scope out some breathtaking Mexican landscapes to watch the sun come up. With so many new festivals sprouting up everywhere, what sets BPM apart from the rest? Location and line up. Not often do fans have the chance to spend a week of vacation in such tropical settings all while partying to live sets by so many of their favourite artists, this event merges the two worlds together seamlessly. This mega-festival was founded by a group of Canadians and has been a success story since the very beginning. Every year the crowd has doubled yet the programming remains house and techno heavy—as the creators had always envisioned. Today the festival attracts almost 40 000 fans and reaches all the way around the globe, bringing people together from all five continents to party. Canada does have a significant presence, as the snow sets in, many Canucks find this a perfect destination for a winter vacation particularly in the province of Quebec where a loyal group of more than 2 000 eager fans make the trip every year. Originally conceived as an elite dance music industry-networking event, the festival has evolved into an international mix of electronic music lovers, DJs, producers, and party professionals. Parties are hosted both day & night at multiple venues in a beautiful beach town bordered by miles of white sand beaches and the Mayan Riviera. This veritable who’s who of the house music industry
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provides avenues for a wealth of meetings and networking opportunities throughout 10 long days of action. It is also a nice escape from the ever-more-commercial aspect of the regular EDM scene, attracting mainly the most hardcore fans of house and techno music. Keeping with tradition, BPM festival has once again scheduled more than 100 world-class artists to play throughout the 10 sunny days and breezy nights. Through the years many tech and house titans have
graced the decks at BPM Festival events including fan faves Dubfire, Guy Gerber, John Digweed, Lee Burridge, Loco Dice, Nic Fanciulli, Richie Hawtin, Seth Troxler, Steve Lawler, and Sven Vath. This year fans will see the return of each and every one of these BPM veteran artists as well as a number of other stellar DJs, some scheduled to play this epic festival for their first time. The phase 1 of the line up has been released and also includes the likes of Carl Cox, Carlo Lio, Chus & Ceballos, Maceo Plex, Mark Knight, Martin Buttrich, Nicole Moudaber, Paco Osuna, Saeed Younan, The Martinez Brothers and Victor Calderone. After all the excitement that has already come from fans seeing this year’s line up, we anticipate another wave of uproar through the industry when they announce the next phase. Keep an eye out for announcements on the website, and make your plans as soon as possible as the hotels have been already fielding calls from tons of eager festival-goers. BPM is clearly a brand that is here to stay and is surely the perfect event to kick off 2013 with a huge bang. This
year’s festival will once again be an immersive experience for all the excited fans in attendance. The combination of a strong production team, a group of seasons professionals and an international following create an unbelievable atmosphere every year. Will you be there when house music takes over paradise?
WRITING BY STEF ABREK | PHOTOS BY BENNETT SELL-KLINE