Event promoters around the world have been discouraged from throwing shows without proper precautions as they could become COVID super spreaders. However, organizers of Art With Me, a four-day festival in Tulum, Mexico, went ahead anyway and has become a super spreader just as health experts warned.

The event was held November 11-15 in Tulum, a popular vacation destination even (and maybe especially) during COVID for influencers and wealthy individuals to escape the restrictions of the US. Unfortunately, the event which describes itself as “a community-driven festival that combines art, music, workshops, wellness and cultural experiences” forgot about the wellness part.

According to various sources, upwards of dozens of people have contracted COVID following the festival.

Be Svendsen, a Danish DJ who performed a cenote set during Art With Me, claims he got COVID following the fest, he told Daily Beast, “and that he ‘heard of at least 17 other people’ who also came down with COVID after attending festival parties.”

Art With Me partnered with 21 local hotels for the four days, endangering even those who weren’t there for event with their recklessness.

Svendsen says the blame shouldn’t be placed solely on this one event when Tulum in general isn’t closely following health guidelines.

“I don’t think it makes sense to point out a single small gathering, while a whole town full of people was, and still is, partying without masks and clearly not worrying or being careful in the slightest,” Svendsen, who travels all over the globe DJing, told Daily Beast. “Art With Me and Tulum in general should be the story.”

As long as events like Art With Me and ReUnite in the US continue to flaunt health guidelines and endanger others, the eventual return of EDM events and the trust of local officials becomes more and more dubious.

via Daily Beast