I Went To Baja Beach Fest So You Didn’t Have To | Opinion

If you haven’t heard of Baja Beach Fest let me inform you about this top tier Reggaeton concert. Throughout quarantine we have had to sacrifice one of our biggest joys for the greater good, musical festivals. As the vaccinated population has gone up and COVID-19 cases have gone down, musical festivals are coming back. August 13-15th Baja Beach Fest went down. 

What is Baja Beach Fest?

Baja Beach fest is a reggaeton fan’s dream getaway trip. It started in 2018 with only a few hundred people attending. After seeing how poppin it was and having Bad Bunny performing they raised it up in 2019 and thousands of people came. 2020 was cancelled because of COVID but for 2021 they extended it to a 3 day festival with over 30,000-40,000 attendees. It’s located on one of  Mexico’s famous beaches, Rosarito Beach. The concert is literally ON THE BEACH. Thousands of people having the time of their lives dancing to their favorite artist. Week 1 went from August 13-15 and week 2 is august 20-22nd.

Who was Performing at Baja Beach Fest?

The line-up was elite with big names like J-Balvin, Ozuna, Karol G, Myke Towers, Rauw Alejandro, Farruko, Becky G and more (unfortunately Bad Bunny did not return this year). The festivals began each day at 2 PM, but the big performers started around 6-7 p.m. The first night they had el Ozuna, a.k.a. Negrito Ojos Claros, to headline. Alongside him performing was Karol G, Lunay, El Alfa, Dalex and Mora. Night 2 they didn’t hold back, Myke Towers was killing it with “La Curiosidad” (which played about 10 times throughout the festival and yes everytime it still slapped), “Bandido,” “Girl” and more. After Farruko came on and when he played “Pepas” the crowd went crazy! The end of the night was Anuel AA who did his thang too and ended the night with “Bebecita” and an explosion of beautiful fireworks. The final night was the best one. They had the beyond talented Jhay Cortez, Mr. Panama himself Sech, Rauw Alejandro, and for the headline it was the prince of reggaeton J Balvin!

COVID SCARE?

The major controversy was how this festival was allowed to happen when we are going through a tough time with the pandemic. Over 30,000 people in an enclosed area shaking to reggaeton and dozens of people crowding by the bar… sounds like a recipe for disaster. I’ll let you know what their precautions were. Before being allowed to enter, everyone had to activate their wristband, and part of that process included proving you were vaccinated. They did this by uploading a picture of their vaccine card or you had to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the event. Masks were required to even enter and multiple people were tasked with telling people to wear their mask throughout the venue. However the closer you got to the stage the less people wore masks and no one was there to enforce it. Mask mandates got stricter after each day because Baja Beach fest was getting a lot of heat from the media for throwing this event during the increased delta variant times.