LLast week, The Daily Beast revealed that Art With Me, a wellness and dance music festival held from November 11-15 in Tulum, Mexico, was a COVID-19 broadcast event, featuring several attendees and performers who contracted the virus within reach, partying with hundreds of people and transporting it back to Miami and New York.
“I would say that 60-70 percent of my positives in the last two weeks in New York City have been the direct result of people who have returned from Art With Me or who have been directly exposed to someone who attended to Art With Me, ”said Eleonora Walczak, founder of private care and testing company COVID Checkmate Health Strategies. “And I also do tests in Miami, and my reviewers there tell me that a lot of their positives are people coming back from Art With Me.”
But while the impact of that failure was concentrated, locals were gearing up for more trouble – a more than two-week music festival that would begin on New Year’s Eve.
As COVID has devastated Mexico, killing more than 110,000 people and infecting more than 1.2 million, the world’s highest mortality rate, at 9.2 percent, according to Johns Hopkins University, the party has not stopped in Tulum. Tourists, mainly from the United States, Europe and South America, have come down to the beach town in groups for dinner, dancing and dispense with COVID restrictions.
After the Art With Me story was published, I received several emails from people in Tulum expressing fear and concern for the upcoming Zamna Festival, a dance music party set between December 31 and January . 16. With tickets almost sold out, thousands of tourists are expected to attend the 17-day “immersive electronic experience,” dancing in massive crowds to a series of DJ ensembles.
The tourist pandemic party in Tulum has angered locals, who believe its behavior recklessly endangers the community and many believe Zamna could end up being a new public health disaster.
“The hotel area has been a lot busy “, offered Michael *, an American expat living in Tulum who asked for his last name to be retained for professional reasons. He revealed that the tourist ravers document their party in Facebook and WhatsApp groups.” There are there have been a lot of digital nomads coming to Tulum since Southeast Asia kicked them in. They’re mostly all American and, being local, we avoid them because they don’t wear masks, they don’t spend space in the restaurant and they don’t spend money, so we hope they leave.And that’s a crowd that really parties, too. “
On November 16, Tulum Mayor Victor Mas Tah announced that there would be no more large-scale events in his municipality of Quintana Roo, citing an Oct. 31 shooting at the popular Vagalume beach club that left two dead and three wounded. More than 500 people reportedly attended that night. Despite the tragedy, DJ dance parties with hundreds of partygoers have burst into cenotes (underground caves), nightclubs and other places in and around Tulum. Given that the mayor himself has a stake in a popular Tulum cenote / venue called Casa Tortuga and that the area’s economy depends on nightlife, it is still unclear whether there will be any real repression against major events.
“It is well known that our mayor, Victor Mas Tah, owns a large party and cenote called Tortuga House, and there are many parties,” Michael explained. “They don’t call it ‘bribery’ here, they call it ‘advice.’ But our view of these parts is that it’s destroying silence, destroying natural habitats, and then they’re leaving.”
The organizers of the Zamna Festival repeatedly refused to comment on this story. The Daily Beast also sent an email to all members of the Quintana Roo government listed on its website (including Victor Mas Tah), as well as to the U.S. State Department, requesting comments on the Zamna Festival. and the party in Tulum. Although several members of the Quintana Roo government repeatedly gave us proof, passing The Daily Beast to a seemingly endless chain of representatives, the U.S. State Department issued a statement:
Conditions vary by location and we continue to recommend U.S. citizens to be careful when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic. U.S. citizens considering traveling abroad should review all travel advice for their destinations at Travel.State.gov.
The U.S. State Department also noted the CDC’s travel advice to Mexico, which is currently at its highest level (4), and recommends that “travelers should avoid all travel to Mexico.” , as “travel can increase the chances of obtaining and disseminating COVID- 19.”
Health experts who spoke to The Daily Beast strongly advised against attending any large-scale gatherings, let alone a dance music festival where the possibility of social distancing and wearing masks seems , at best, unlikely.
“It is difficult to enforce public health measures, because drugs and alcohol are also involved. This is very worrying, because we are at a turning point.”
“COVID is not controlled in the United States or Mexico at the moment and therefore even if the event is outdoors with a lower-than-normal number, this is very worrying, because people cannot distance yourself socially in these spaces and usually doesn’t wear masks, ”said Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Michigan.“ It’s hard to enforce public health measures because drugs and alcohol are also involved. This is very worrying, because we are at a turning point. “
Although young people are less likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID, they may be the demographics most responsible for the spread of the virus right now and delaying a return to normalcy.
“Are they on a different planet from the rest of us and don’t realize there’s a pandemic?” Dr. Timothy Brewer, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Medicine, said of those attending dance parties in Tulum. “Across the country, there are young people aged 18 to 49 to drive this pandemic. This is where about 60 percent of infections occur. And hospitalizations increase even more than deaths. Therefore, some of these young people aged 18 to 49 end up in hospital … or may even die from this disease ”.
The pandemic party in Tulum has divided members of the dance music community, with some DJs accepting concerts and others giving up pay days to err on the side of caution.
Soloiist, a Mexican DJ who will perform on the opening night of the Zamna Festival, told The Daily Beast that Zamna “is so important to the electronic community” because Tulum is one of the only places in the world where winter is like the summer”.
He defended Zamna’s COVID protocols: urging the wearing of masks and social distancing; temperature checks and antibody tests (which do not capture an active infection), although Art With Me had similar guidelines and still suffered a massive outbreak. Soloiist also cited South Korea as a place that has hosted electronic dance parties for thousands. When you remember that the situation of COVID is very different from Mexico, he replied, “Yes, it’s not the same,” and added: “It’s been almost a year of blockade and it’s been hard. I know people want to go out. It’s a very complex and difficult issue. ”
Another DJ, who requested anonymity to prevent them from acting on the blacklist, said he believes those in the EDM world should put the local community first instead of offering a life-threatening escapism.
“As a DJ who normally works in Tulum at this time working, it hurts me that so many Europeans and Americans continue to come to the place regardless of the implications for the local people,” they said. “We know that poor communities are the most vulnerable to complications and death from COVID-19, and that the local population of Tulum and other cities in Mexico will pay the highest price, why? For a few nights of dancing and “I’m angry that these people don’t see the seriousness of the issue and are willing to risk other people’s lives for their personal pleasure. Is the party really that important? No, it never is.”