- As soon as you arrive at Festival Trópico, you know you're in for something special. The annual event, which held its first edition in December, takes place at the Fairmont Princess in Acapulco, Mexico, one of the world's top 500 hotels. To get to the site, guests walked along a brick pathway past flamingos, pools and swinging bridges. Bright green grass, neon wife-beaters and silver hula hoops made for an intensely colourful scene, all set against the sparkling blue of the Pacific Ocean.
With roughly 2,000 people and just one stage, Trópico is far more intimate than most festivals. This means no running from stage to stage, no chance of losing your friends and no fear of ever being far from a generously stocked bar. The performances took place in what felt like a secret garden, walled off from the rest of the hotel and raised up off the beach. Much of the programming worked out beautifully. Poolside's disco sound was made for sunny afternoons in the tropics, and the sun was low in the sky as Washed Out played their laconic beats, bathed in purple light. The weather was hot and sticky, but no one was moving around too much—many attendees lounged in the mini-pool or sipped from overpriced coconuts.
Just when you started to wonder whether this was all a little too relaxing, the sun set and the vibe transformed entirely. This was largely thanks to the phenomenal Dengue Dengue Dengue!, two DJs in tribal masks who whipped the crowd into a fever with their fusion of cumbia, reggaeton and techno. Next up, Darkside, AKA Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington, were mesmerizing: slow, mellow, invigorating and unlike anything else on the bill. Nicolas Jaar's solo set also went down a storm. An introverted performer, he barely looked at the audience, connecting with them through his music instead. If there was anyone there that wasn't moving, I didn't see them. When he called it a night around 3:30 AM, the crowd decamped to a more intimate party on a hill and danced until the sun came up.
Feeling slightly run down after Saturday's events, Sunday's pool party was a welcome respite. DJs, sunshine and micheladas kept the good vibes rolling into the evening, with nobody looking as if they had real lives to return to the following day. Festival Trópico was by no means seamless—there were occasional sound problems, and too much time between sets, which could have been easily fixed by having DJs play between the acts. Still, it's clear they have an exceptionally good thing going here.