Dozens Of Ravers Are Trapped In Quarantine At The “Tribal Gathering” Music Festival In Panama
It's like Fyre Festival, if you throw in a pandemic and new age ravers for good measure.
More than a month after the festival ended, dozens of punters remain on the beach-side site of Panama’s Tribal Gathering Festival, unable to return home due to COVID-19.
The UK-organised Tribal Gathering is described as a “literal paradise” located in the picturesque Colón, and brings together electronic music with talks and events run and facilitated by members of various Indigenous communities from across the globe.
The festival, slated to finish on the 15 of March, has been under quarantine from the 12th as Panama shut down nationally to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Where many of the Indigenous people had either already left by the 12th or subsequently did, the festival’s punters stayed.
According to The Guardian, the festival’s organisers begged officials for the festival to continue after the 12th, but after its official end, punters found themselves unable to get home.
A must-watch Vice documentary called “From Paradise To Hell” provides an insight into “the last festival on Earth”, capturing how moods quickly changed as the quarantine continued. Early in, a punter figures COVID-19 as something of a blessing, saying ‘the spirits are forcing people to work on their spiritual selves’.
As people attempted to leave, the site was locked down by military and police, who withheld some people’s passports.
Embassy support was mixed, with countries successfully stepping in to repatriate their citizens, though US and UK festival attendees voice feelings of abandonment in the Vice documentary.
Many UK citizens either remain at the site or in Panama City, unable to get home.
“The British embassy sent a bus, but they just took people to the airport,” a British circus performer who elected to stay on camp told The Guardian. “There were no flights and they just left them there. They didn’t sort them out flights or anything.”
While the idyllic location has its appeal, there were reportedly sewage issues and ‘disgusting water’ after “nonstop rain” for several days.
The festival is currently crowd-funding to support its growing food bill and assist those in their ‘family’ currently stuck either in Panama City or in another city en route to home. The festival has also taken out a $160,000 loan.
As per their GoFundMe, the festival has removed “all paying guests” as of March 24, but the Vice documentary describes the remaining 40 or so people as “true believers”, suggesting several volunteers and artists remain in addition to the crew.
Panama’s lockdown was extended last week until at least the 22nd of May.
While there’s been some tough competition for the title of ‘Fyre Festival 2.0’, Tribal Gathering has a pandemic, new age ravers, and a pending rainy season on its side.
Watch Vice‘s documentary below.
Feature image via ‘From Paradise To Hell’/Vice.