Arena - Playa del Carmen, Mexico

There is an amazing festival that has become the place to be during the NYE celebration, and this year was the 5th edition of the BPM festival in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Unfortunately I was unable to be there this year, and I'm planning and will try my best to be there for the next one.  This is when I heard about this new music festival called ARENA (February 5 to 12, 2012).


2012 will be their first edition, and they are advertising it as the new gay event in Mexico, and looking at the invited deejays they are not joking about the sought clientele. At the end of the day, I decided to go not because is a gay festival, but because there will be house music in a sunny and warm place.

Nevertheless if you visit their official website the front page does not  say anything about the gayness of the festival, unless of course you look at the picture of the hunky model been used to attract those party jet-setters, but when you read the description this is when the hunky + house music = gay festival becomes obvious, and hopefully this event will attract a mix crowd, they are always fun.

It is in February and this is when a lot of people are sick and tired of the winter in the Northern latitudes, the weather is usually great in Playa del Carmen, and the city is cozy and attractive, and the musical talent invited is perfect for a good time, so why not eh?

The good news is I'll be reporting live from Playa del Carmen, the bad new is I won't be there from the beginning, but who cares, it is Winter in Canada and it should be sunny and warm in Mexico. Hopefully I will be able to take some good pictures and videos of the festival, and as usual I will try to review most of the parties, and please forgive me if I don't write anything for a couple of days, probably I'll be enjoying the beach parties in Playa.

If you are going, Playa del Carmen is not a big city and you can walk around without any issues.  Accommodations should be easy to find and it shouldn't be too expensive, and some hotels are offering discounts for this festival (promotional code: ARENA - I would call the number on the Arena website because I tried different hotels and they did not recognized the promotional code given).

When booking your airfare don't despair if you can't find flights to Playa del Carmen, this is because you should be flying to Cancun instead and then taken a bus to Playa - some hotels offer pick up arrangements so make sure to inquire as well.

If you need more info, you can always join their Facebook page and ask them directly, otherwise just book you trip and have some fun with Stephan Grondin, Chus & Ceballos, Isaac Escalante, Peter Rauhofer, Phil Romano and other deejays.