I rang in the New Year at an all-night rave in the Moroccan desert. It left Times Square in the dust.
The party was held in the Agafay Desert, a hilly lunar landscape about an hour outside of Marrakesh. It’s a popular spot for Moroccans to head to on the weekends for horseback riding, riding ATVs, or just staring at the stars.
There are a number of camps you can stay at in the area, but the RAK Electronik party was being held at the Agafay Desert Luxury Camp. It seemed to be further into the desert than most camps. You could see the stunning Atlas mountain range in the distance.
Tickets to the event weren’t cheap at $80 and up, depending on your tent setup. But I’m used to paying through the nose to stand in a crowded bar in New York City for as much money or more. And don’t get me started on Times Square.
RAK Electronik is a party outfit started by Diego Lasou Ugarte, a French-Chilean DJ based in Marrakesh. Lasou Ugarte and his team organize intimate electronic music events in far-out places like the top of Mount Toubkal in the Atlas Mountains, the beach on Tafedna Bay, and Ouzoud Falls. The New Year’s event at Agafay was only for 130 attendees.
We got there early at around 5 p.m. so we could set up in our tent and make sure there was enough time to see the sunset.
While Agafay had its own snazzy luxury tents for its guests, the tents for the festival attendees were a bit more hippy chic, if you know what I mean. This is what ours looked like.
And the inside of the tent. We booked a four-person tent, which ended up costing about $125 a person.
After setting up our stuff in the tent and putting on a few more layers — it was chilly even before nightfall — we went to have a walk around the camp and take a peek into some of the other tents.
This is what the two-person tent looked like. It cost around $166 a person.
The music was already kicking by the time we arrived. It was an eclectic mix of electronica, soul, nu-disco, downtempo, and a bunch of other genres I can’t remember the name of. BENNY, an electronic music collective from Casablanca, got the night started
The tents for the actual guests of the luxury camp were more elaborate than ours. They even had a patio to relax on. But, don’t envy them too much. As I found out later, many of the camp guests weren’t told there was an all-night rave happening during their quiet New Year’s Eve. One American family was so incensed they had the camp pay for a taxi to take them back to Marrakesh.
The festival area was small, but well designed. There was this large tent to hang out in behind the dance floor.
About half of the festival attendees were served dinner in this tent. It was decorated in Moroccan rugs, rough-hewn wooden tables, and lots of cool knickknacks.
There was a side area with a pool, a couple of tables, and a pagoda-like tent. We labeled it the "VIP section." It was not actually the VIP section.
The water was freezing. If I didn’t make it clear already, Morocco is cold in the winter. I’ll be honest, I did not expect that and packed as if it was still summer. I was already layering up with as many t-shirts as I could wear.
The bathrooms started out clean. Within about an hour, they no longer looked usable. I never thought I would be wistful for a real port-a-potty.
The sinks outside the bathrooms were Instagram-worthy.
The event had a cash bar, but thankfully you could bring your own alcohol as well. I stocked up on vodka and wine at the duty-free shop in the airport.
Around 6 p.m., the official RAK Electronik shuttle showed up to bring the party people. But people were trickling in via taxi all evening.
With the sun starting to go down, a dozen people or so got the dancing started. The crowd seemed to consist of mostly French, Germans, and Belgians, with a few Moroccans sprinkled in.
We decided to do a short hike up to the top of the hill overlooking the camp. I wanted to catch a good view before the sun set completely on 2018.
I wasn’t the only one. And, boy, was it worth it. The clouds were as cotton-candy purple and blue as it looks in the photo.
I mean, come on. What a way to cap off 2018. Beats standing in Times Square in the freezing pouring rain ...
This is what the festival setup looked like from above. It was an intimate gathering. But that just meant it was easier to make friends with the revelers.
The camp was set up with small lamps along the paths so you didn’t fall into the ditches and crevasses between the desert hills.
I ordered some traditional Moroccan mint tea to enjoy with my friends in the “VIP” section.
After enjoying the tea and popping our bottle of wine, it was time for dinner. We headed up to the big tent at the top of the camp where dinner was to be served. We weren’t the only ones looking to fill their stomachs before the festivities really kicked in.
Thankfully, the camp had a fireplace built into the tent. Once this fire was burning, the tent got nice and toasty.
In full Fyre Festival fashion, the buffet line for dinner got pretty competitive. People were piling food onto their plates and making sure they got their share. I was not alone. Despite how much of a mishmash this looks like, there was a delicious mix of Moroccan tagines and vegetarian side dishes.
Then it was time to dance ...
... or hang out around the fire pit that was directly behind the dance floor. The temperature was close to freezing by the time the clock got close to midnight.
As 2019 descended upon us, I cracked open a bottle of prosecco to celebrate. I would’ve gotten champagne, but the duty-free shop only had Veuve Cliquot. Too rich for my blood.
There were some paper lanterns to let off into the starry night sky. Unfortunately, I don’t think they were particularly well-made because a couple of them started drifting toward the other tents. One nearly lit a bathroom tent on fire.
There was a projector behind the dance floor with some visuals. This "Happy New Year" message may be tame, but the rest of the night was trippy cartoon psychedelia.
The dance floor heated up after midnight. The lineup included DJs from Morocco, Norway, Belgium, and France. I headed off to bed around 4 a.m., although sleep is a relative term. The tents were directly behind the DJ booth, which meant that you heard the booming bass all night long.
A little bit after 7 a.m., I gave up on trying to go to sleep. The air was so cold I could see my breath in front of me and the thumping electro music never stopped.
I was not the only one who had long since given up on using the bathroom tents and moved to going to the bathroom au naturale.
There were still a few lit embers in the fire by the dance floor, but it had long since stopped giving off any heart.
But about a dozen diehards who were still dancing strong into the morning.
Breakfast was simple: coffee, orange juice, croissants, hard-boiled eggs, and muffins. Supposedly, there were scrambled eggs too, but I never saw them.
Some people had brought out blankets to dance in. Now that’s what I call a winter rave outfit.
But I had a pounding headache (Thanks, prosecco) and was determined to get as far away from the music as possible. The best place to go? The top of the hill above the camp.
The added bonus was that I got to see the first sunrise of 2019. I had figured that I had woken up too late to see the sunrise, but the Atlas Mountains in the distance had extended the sunrise.
There was no going back to sleep after sunrise. Once the sun got high in the sky, it warmed the tents so that they got too hot to sleep in. It didn’t matter, the music was cranked even higher after 9 a.m. calling any sleepy partiers back to the dance floor.
As the French say, the best way to get rid of a hangover is to dance. (Note: I don’t know if French people say this).
After a bit more dancing, I went back up to the tent at the top of the camp. While I am not in this photo per se, you can be sure I was laying in the exact same position as these two hungover dudes holding their heads. I ended up with a migraine for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, I cannot bounce back like I did at age 21 anymore.
The music kept going until nearly 1 p.m. Lasou Ugarte closed out his own party with some dynamite tunes.
That was it for RAK Electronik’s 2019 New Year's bash. While there were a few hiccups, they mostly put on a great, intimate party. I never imagined that I would spend New Year's partying in the Moroccan desert. The next time I’m in Morocco, I’ll be sure to check out what they’ve got cooking up. Maybe next time it will be in an even more picturesque place. The Sahara Desert anyone?
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