According to The BPM Festival’s organizers, “there are forces at play in Costa Rica that appear determined for us [to] fail.”
After two days overshadowed by unexpected event cancellations, The BPM Festival Costa Rica must call off all three remaining days of its programming in Tamarindo, Guanacaste.
On Wednesday — the first day of the gathering — all evening parties were forced to end early, and three more events were canceled the following day. By evening, The BPM Festival’s organizers issued a statement promising that they had conducted “a thorough investigation” and “confirmed with local authorities that we are fully authorized to continue with our event.”
They’re singing a different tune this morning. “It is with sincere regret that we have been forced to cancel all further events for the 2025 edition of The BPM Festival: Costa Rica,” reads their latest Instagram post.
Organizers maintain that “all necessary permits were secured well in advance of the festival,” and that “our team attended emergency meetings with local authorities” after trouble started to arise earlier in the week. Ultimately, they say, they received approval to continue. “This reaffirmation only confirmed what we already knew: we have always been fully authorized to deliver these events for our ticket holders,” they wrote.
The statement continues: “Despite every effort made by our team, who have worked around the clock from across the world, there are forces at play in Costa Rica that appear determined for us and for other electronic events to discontinue or fail.”
The BPM Festival is not the only dance music event brand to encounter recent setbacks while operating in Costa Rica. In November, the organizers of Envision Festival shared that the gathering would not take place in 2025 after an attendee named Nicholas “Panda” Davila was allegedly kidnapped in the parking lot and found dead three hours away.
The 2025 edition of The BPM Festival Costa Rica was initially going to take place in a “jungle-like” setting in the Guanacaste province, according to organizers. On Sunday, however, they announced that they would “consolidate all festival programming in our original home base of Tamarindo.” According to The Tico Times, this followed the submission of a document signed by 183 residents of nearby Playa Avellana that voiced concerns about the event taking place there.
The document alleged that The BPM Festival Costa Rica 2024 coincided with an uptick in “fights, street brawls, and even homicides” in Tamarindo, referring to a fatality that occurred in nearby Los Jobos. This reportedly led Tamarindo officials to decide against hosting the 2025 festival. The article also said that The BPM Festival’s organizers brought “machinery and equipment” to the event site on December 28 despite having yet to obtain a liquor license or approved surveillance plan.
“Although the authorities have not provided a specific reason for this year’s sudden shutdown, we believe that claims linking the cancellation to alleged incidents from 2024 are completely unfounded,” wrote a spokesperson on behalf of The BPM Festival in an email to EDM Identity. “The festival has maintained an exemplary safety record throughout its three-year presence in Costa Rica. The relocation to Tamarindo was prompted solely by local government intervention days before the event, despite having secured all necessary permits months in advance for the originally planned location.”
“Even after this unexpected venue change, the festival obtained full legal authorization to operate in Tamarindo, where it has built strong relationships with local businesses and the community over the years,” the email continues. “The sudden closure of BPM 2025, along with similar actions taken against other events like Labyrinto Festival in late 2024, appears to be part of a broader pattern affecting international electronic music events in Costa Rica, rather than a response to any specific security concerns.”
The brainchild of Craig Pettigrew and Phillip Pulitano, The BPM Festival was first held in 2008 in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. A shooting at the 2017 event that killed four and injured 15 prompted organizers to relocate it to Portugal, and after the pandemic, the annual gathering landed in its current home. This year’s lineup featured house and techno acts like Jan Blomqvist, Franceca Lombardo, Manda Moor, and Malóne.
The BPM Festival Costa Rica’s organizers have announced that they will provide full information about refunds on Wednesday, January 15.
This article has been updated to include information regarding the document signed by Playa Avellana locals as well as a statement from The BPM Festival.