While traveling to Faro, Portugal last year, our conversations and thoughts were filled with speculation and intrigue. Having traveled extensively throughout Europe, we know the “lay of the land” so to say, and were excited to see how The BPM Festival would re-create the magical experience that we all knew and love. The primary question wasn’t if BPM would deliver, but how? As our aircraft touched down in 2018, we had a baseline (bassline :)) for our expectations, and were curious as to how the festival would expand upon the previous year’s experience.

Exiting the Faro terminal, we quickly learned there was an ongoing taxi strike in the region. Thankfully, for us and many other festival attendees, the Algarve region of Portugal is Uber friendly, and rides are extremely affordable. Our driver was hospitable enough to provide an iPad, with SoundCloud and a LTE connection for the journey to Portimao. Speaking with various drivers throughout the festival, we came to learn that many of them were from the surrounding areas. Recognizing the opportunity, due to the taxi strike, these drivers were staying in Portimao specifically for The BPM Festival. Combined with the shuttle buses that BPM provided throughout the event, transportation in and around Portimao was seamless, and unaffected by the strike.

© Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now (fb.com/wearehereandnow)

Having survived the previous year, we were aware of the possible day drinking landmines that scatter Portimao. We were able to navigate the town deliberately avoiding them (for a few hours at least) while we investigated the festival venues and determined the location of Villa Mariazinha, this year’s replacement for Cloque. Superficially, there didn’t seem to be significant changes to the venues, but over the years we’ve learned not to judge a book by it’s cover. It didn’t take long to find out that a local brewery had started producing and distributing craft beers in the area, a necessity which was illusive last year. It took even shorter to find a wine bar at the port, with a drink menu that satisfies wine and craft beer lovers.

Photo Credit – Alec Donnell Luna of DED AGENCY

Day parties were hosted at NoSoloAgua and Blanco Beach, two expansive, neighboring beach clubs which were carried over from last year. Our journey into sound began at Blanco Beach, for Paradise. Immediately after entering the venue, it was clear that significant improvements had been made since the previous year. The VIP section was modified for efficiency/additional space, restaurant area was expanded and the audio and visual production was ramped up. NoSoloAgua, where we very thoroughly enjoyed All Day I Dream, exhibited similar differences from 2017. Most notably, the NoSoloAgua venue had been expanded to include all of the beach alongside the dancefloor. This change vastly improved the flow of the club, and provided extra room for party goers to dance or relax.

© Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now (fb.com/wearehereandnow)

Night parties revolved around Centro de Congressos again, a massive multi-room convention center, just minutes from downtown Portimao; with satellite venues, Katedral and Villa Mariazinha, hosting more intimate parties closer to the town center. Entering the Congressos venue complex, and venue itself this year was a breeze, as all of the kinks from the previous year seem to have been straightened out. The layout inside the venue was fine tuned as well and coupled with the impressive sound, decor and visuals that The BPM Festival is known for. We enjoyed every second we spent at Congressos, but No. 19 and YA’AH MUUL are still replaying in our heads to this day.

© Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now (fb.com/wearehereandnow)

© Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now (fb.com/wearehereandnow)

Although The BPM Festival Portugal 2018 may not have grown significantly in terms of number of venues, the quality of what each venue offered improved this year as the festival continues to evolve. This year’s event successfully hosted over 250 hours of music, spanning 4 days and nights, for Techno Tourists coming from 75 countries spanning all corners of the globe. We look forward to experiencing the next chapter of BPM, in 2019.

#tripwithus

The BPM Festival: Portugal

September 20-23, 2018

Portimão & Lagoa, Portugal

Bags are packed, camera is ready and we’re headed off on our annual Eurotrip. This year – based around The BPM Festival – Portugal. After the success of last year’s festival, we couldn’t help, and succumbed to BPM fever. Even with the extra connecting flight, it was a no-brainer. BPM 2018 Portugal, here we come!

This year was filled with travel and excitement, but we’re always happy to come home to BPM. For almost a decade now, this festival has been a cornerstone of Techno Tourist. Tripping across the Atlantic last year was a blast, and with BPM’s track record of innovation year after year, we’re excited to see what the festival has cooked up over the last 12 months!

The final lineup (below) was released today, and we’re more eager than ever to sink our feet into the sand at Blanco Beach/NoSoloAgua, and enjoy some delicious, and cheap, Portuguese wine.

Tickets are still available at: thebpmfestival.com

Final line-up (over 150 artists) has been released:

(click image for full size)

See you on the dancefloor.

#tripwithus

For as long as we’ve been attending The BPM Festival, like clockwork each January would roll around and rumors would begin to surface about the “new” location of BPM in the subsequent year. From semi-believable, to downright laughable, it was always fun debating with friends, and mentally planning a journey we knew was never going to take place. Finally, in 2017, the rampant speculation came to an end. We learned (from the festival itself) – it’s actually happening! In September, The BPM Festival would produce it’s second 2017 installment, in Portimão and Lagoa, Portugal. As evidenced by history though, recreating an environment and vibe is no mundane task. Successfully expanding The BPM Festival isn’t as simple as throwing up a few stages in a parking lot – BPM customers expect more. We never had doubts that BPM would deliver, but our interest was in how they would do so.

This question was partially answered before we even touched down in Faro, Portugal – en route to the festival. Maneuvering into position for landing, our plane provided us with a quick aerial tour of the area surrounding what we would call home for the next week. Picturesque cliffs overlooking pristine water and exquisite properties dotting the coast aren’t the perfect recipe for a successful festival, but from the air it was easy to tell that BPM had selected a host location with the ideal characteristics to carry the torch.

Once our feet were on the ground, these initial thoughts were immediately confirmed. Our first few hours in Portugal were consumed with eating (of course), and a journey to examine the nearby venues. In-line with previous installments of The BPM Festival, many of the day venues are open to the general public in the BPM off-season. Even a few days before the festival started, normies were enjoying drinks on the sand while speaker stacks were being assembled next to them, and stages were being built just down the beach within the same venue. The enticing beachfront scene at No Solo Agua was hard to ignore, so we decided to settle down on the sand and join them. Without the need for convincing, just confirming that BPM was going to be exceptional, we were satisfied and our pre-festival venue exploration very quickly turned into stage 1 of inebriation.

Throughout our careers as Techno Tourists, we’ve had the privilege of attending a variety of events spanning all fathoms of the electronic music spectrum. Like all products and services that we consume in life, some events are a straight up cash grab, while others rely on event quality and production value to generate recurring visitors. Newcomers are always welcome, without them no festival would survive. But newcomers who become lifers due to the production quality and vibe generated by a festival are one of the building blocks that compose the foundation that The BPM Festival was built on. With an ever-expanding customer base that includes an extensive number of repeat attendees, BPM has shown that slow and steady organic growth is not only the path to success, but also provides customers with a refreshing experience year after year.

One challenge facing any decentralized urban festival is the seamless distribution of bracelets. As The BPM Festival began to grow in Playa, the ticket booth under Aldea Thai (and then in the parking lot across the street) lacked the adequate space to house eager festivalgoers. BPM adjusted to accommodate increasing demand as years passed, but in Portugal future growth is already on the menu. Approaching the traffic circle at the end of Estrada da Rocha, the parking lot that BPM had commandeered for their wristband distribution operation displayed that the festival was ready for any future growth. There were plenty of signs of party, even before the festival began, with empty Super Bock bottles lining the metal barricades approaching the bracelet booth.

After being banded, festivalgoers head past the hilltop Fort of Santa Catarina attempting to decipher the source of low frequency audio emission nearby. As if the sound waves are a magnet, that hollow thud that all of us can recognize from a distance is nothing short of taunting. Within minutes, attendees face a fork in the road (not a literal fork, actually a traffic circle) – stay left and head to NoSoloAgua (where we enjoyed a 16 hour Paradise party, or bear right to Blanco Beach (elrow’s Portugal debut was spectacular). Each venue occupies a large swath of beach, adjacent to the facilities from which they garner their respective names. This flexible setup ensures that future growth of BPM can be accommodated effortlessly. In typical BPM fashion, these weren’t the only two day venues – just the largest. A short but stunningly beautiful walk up the beach, landed partygoers at the entrance to three of the smaller venues, Katedral, Oceans Club and then a more distant Cloque. While all venues were beefed up with more than ample sound + lighting and venue decor was on point as always – the view and sunset from Cloque were a particularly special treat.

Deviating from the traditional BPM norm, the night parties were centered around one large, multi-room venue. Memories that will last a lifetime were created nightly, but those from The BPM Festival’s signature event – YA’AH MUUL still make our hair stand on end. A five-minute cab ride from the center of Portimão, Centro de Congressos do Arde in neighboring municipality Lagoa acted like a beacon in the night, with the roof of the structure glowing purple under the stars. Complete with food trucks, an abundance of bars and three massive rooms featuring the world’s top talent, this festival within a festival was The Jungle on steroids. Frolicking in the actual jungle was fun for the last two years, but having a large multi-room venue with modern amenities and a roof providing protection from bad weather (luckily there was none during the weekend) allows for an even wider variety of events to be produced. With The BPM Festival attracting over 12,000 attendees traveling from 90 countries, Centro de Congressos provided a little bit of everything and plenty of space for future growth, leaving all partygoers satisfied.

As previous installments of The BPM Festival have shown, the dynamic nature of the event itself means that nothing is ever set in stone for future years. Venues are added, removed, expanded, re-located and treats such as pop up parties or surprise afterhours are introduced. BPM veterans remember sweaty nights in the Alux Cave and interesting sunrise walks on the beach to Bang afterhours – there are too many to name. Portimão and the surrounding area provide numerous opportunities for growth moving forward, consistent with BPM’s theme of future proofing via planning.

Creating a successful festival that generates sustained interest over time, while simultaneously providing attendees with new and interesting experiences on a yearly basis is no easy task in itself. Completely uprooting a festival that satisfies these criteria, and transplanting it on another continent without disrupting the perfect balance that has been curated over a period of years, is even more difficult. The BPM Festival made the transition flawlessly, without backpedalling or missing a beat. We are looking forward to the years and memories to come, as we continue to trip to The BPM Festival Portugal.

#tripwithus

Techno Tourists who have been following us for years may remember our 2014 BPM review – aptly titled “Location, Location, Location”. If you’re a new reader, or simply need a refresh – the review can be found here. Although those words were written over three years ago, specifically about The BPM Festival in Playa, our expectation is that the same themes will be successfully extrapolated across the Atlantic, and create an unforgettable experience for attendees of The BPM Festival Portugal.

Instead of burying our feet in the sand of the Yucatan Peninsula, as we dance from sunset to sunrise, the beaches we frolic on will be those of the Iberian Peninsula. Learning about Mayan history and the Mayan culture while attending The BPM Festival in Playa over the years has been fascinating, but there’s absolutely no shortage of equally alluring history to consume, or sites of historical importance to visit in the Algarve region of Portugal. The land surrounding the festival location of The BPM Festival Portugal was once part of the Roman Empire, a hotbed for the launch of various naval expeditions over centuries and even holds some of the secrets of the Knights Templar.

Revisiting the themes of our 2014 review, and how they should flawlessly transfer to The BPM Festival 2017, in Portimao and Lagoa in Portugal.

Location: The Setting

The overall theme of the festival – being held across multiple venues, in an urban setting, will go untouched. Like Playa, the towns of Portimao and Lagoa are geographically located at a distance from major cities which allow them to preserve their local charm, while still being easily accessible to festival attendees. Our previous travels to Southern Portugal have been delightful from a culinary aspect, and it’s the only place that we’ve ever visited where bottled water actually costs more than a bottle of wine.

Location: The Stages

A major benefit of an urban festival is – the ability to generate a variety of different experiences for revelers, in a number of venues, which provide an excellent blank slate for the festival to build on top of and personalize. Being located on a flawless body of water, with beautiful beaches, only enhances the possibilities of what can be achieved. A quick social media search for venues like Oceans Club, No Solo Agua and Blanco Beach, provides BPM attendees a preview of the spaces where we’ll spend our days, nights and sometimes days (again) before retreating for a quick rave nap, just to do it all over again.

Location: Your Stay

One characteristic of Playa, which makes it an ideal location for BPM, is the unusually large amount of foreign investment money entering the town and surrounding areas. Over time, this process creates a self-reinforcing cycle, which leads to a build up of luxury rental properties (apartments and villas), beautiful boutique hotels and a local infrastructure capable of hosting events like BPM (cabs, power, water, roads and venues). Like Playa, Portimao and the surrounding region is packed with a wide variety of luxury apartments and villas, as well as unique boutique hotels that appeal to all types of travelers.

What Does All This Mean?

The overall BPM experience that we’ve been privy to is not something that can be easily created successfully anywhere in the world. With no shortage of pristine beaches dotting the globe, a variety of other factors must be taken into consideration when determining the ideal location to host BPM – in a fashion that will guarantee everyone leaves with an unforgettable experience, smile on their face and endless tales of debauchery. The incredible lineup and showcases, which are cornerstones of BPM, will be transferred across the Atlantic to ensure that the same underground vibe is produced. Familiar faces from years past will unite twice in 2017, what could be better? Portimao and Lagoa, Portugal, are nothing short of the perfect locations to continue the party, and no one is complaining about receiving an extra passport stamp this year!

#tripwithus

BPM 2017 is less than two weeks away, the full lineup and showcases have been announced. We’re more excited than ever to be headed down to Playa, and hope that you are too.

And don’t forget, The BPM Festival documentary: Dancing In Paradise will have it’s world premier screening during the festival.