But as I danced, waiting for the sushi boat to be replenished yet again, I found myself asking, who are music festivals even for anymore?
It ’s a balmy summer SaturdayinSwitzerland , and the crowd is nursing lukewarm Aperol spritz on the poop deck ofLake Geneva ’s oldest sailboat . Although high heels are strictly forbidden to debar destroying the centuries - erstwhile Sir Henry Joseph Wood floorboards of theNeptune , everyone there is dress to impress . A bunch of no more than 30 tilt together in front of the DJ booths , reminisce about their last few day pass in theAlps .
“ It ’s voiceless to beat the belief of being on the water with expectant euphony and friends , ” says Devon Jordan , strike a abbreviated moment of respite with her newfound crew . The nighttime had not even begun .
It had already been a weekend of excess for the 29 - year - old IT manager , who travel from Florida to theCercle Momentby herself . She ’d already made booster with the other attendee ofW Hotelsx Cercle bunce , a glamorous bunch that included young CEOs and prominent strip club possessor , models , and shut down personal supporter of the Kardashian family . I ’d spent the preceding 72 hours among them , dancing my inwardness out in chalets and clandestine basement clubs . We ’d shared brim over sushi boats and Champagne-Ardenne , massage and hotel suites with open fireplace , and view of the Alps . The windows looked like framed Impressionist paintings .
Cercle takes luxury music travel to a whole new level by pairing electronic music with the natural wonders of the world.|Photo by Maxime Chermat, courtesy of W Hotels
Sunset on the Neptune was just the cherry red on top . “ The gravy holder is where we seal off the friendships that were forming , ” says Upasana Kartik Garg , a 31 - year - old author whose family owns what she sound out was the quondam jewelry home in India . “ We unite on a phantasmal storey . ”
In all , more than32 million Americanspack up to go to music festivals every twelvemonth , perhaps because they ’ve long been seen as a budget option — an accessible way to see ton of banding in one post . ButCoachellanow costs up to $ 599 for a oecumenical admission slate and a cool $ 1,399 for VIP ( to say nothing of thesumptuous yurtspriced at $ 32,000 for two people — up from $ 25,000 in 2017 ) .
Meanwhile , Cercle , started by DJsDerek BarbollaandPhilippe Tuchmann , has occupy this tendency toward luxury music travel to a whole new level by copulate electronic medicine with the natural wonder of the world . The show are cozy — and undivided . ThinkDisclosureatop a waterfall in Croatia ’s Plitvice ’s National Park , orBedouinin Al Kazneh , a synagogue in Petra , Jordan . All it took for my raw acquaintance in Switzerland to attend their modish result was the equivalent of $ 3,743.37 ( plus airfare and the episodic $ 73 fishtaco , because the Alps are notoriously expensive . )
The DJ Jonas Saalbach performed live for Cercle at Preikestolen, also known as the Pulpit Rock, in Norway.|Jonas Saalbach
As a appendage of the press , I was a guest at the effect , unburdened by such expenses . But as I trip the light fantastic , waiting for the sushi boat to be replenished yet again , I incur myself require , who are euphony festivals evenforanymore ?
Gargwas living in India in 2015 when she heard about Cercle give a rave in an ancient military fortress in a nearby town . Her involvement was pique but she had no idea how the great unwashed even witness out about these shows in progress . As it would flex out , the mystery was by design . The Edgar Guest choice process for Cercle is shrouded in privateness , so much so that wholeReddit threadsare commit to crack the code . The company announces upshot via cryptic societal media posts and for Garg and Jordan — who were both lucky enough to be plucked off the waitlist for thefour - dayexperience in the Swiss Alps — getting a ticket felt like winning the lottery .
Upon comer , the two women ascertain into their suites atW Verbierand spent their days going on scenic hikes , paragliding above the Alps , and get facials with products made of locally grow Edelweiss . Jordan even study it upon herself to add up on helicopter skydiving , which was on her bucket list . As the group go through Switzerland together , taking in the sights and sounds of a European summer and seeing new music every nighttime , they became very closemouthed .
Cercle also hosts music events at the National Air Space Museum of France, like this one from 2020.|Djanemag
The Cercle experience is extremely curated . Guests from all over the world take over a monument or diachronic watershed for a night and then diverge . As I boarded my trajectory back from Switzerland , it all felt like a pyrexia dreaming . Could I say that I ’d seen Switzerland ? Not exactly .
I call Shain Shapiro , whowritesabout music and urban policy , hoping to get his take on the growing marriage of touristry and music — to attempt to chip out at the direction elite existential traveling is heading . His position was that the ritual around seeing music holds underlying economic value , while the whole spot of touristry is to get people to think somewhat differently about themselves and about a place because they visit it . “ But we as human beings are always attracted to the shiniest thing , ” he differentiate me .
Cercle does shiny well , which is part of the charm for someone like Garg , whose background is literally in rhombus . The experience are all curated for traveller looking for maximal enjoyment and once - in - a - lifetime experience . “ I ’m seem at something where the sheet are a certain kind of cotton , and there will be someone tell me on the dot what to do free-base on the individual I am , something they ’re say off me , ” as she put it . “ A little bit of exclusivity would be decent , too . ”
When it total to pluck travelling destinations , Garg said she acknowledge that societal media put pressure on her to look like she was living it up in luxury resorts . But she said that she would rather , for instance , go burrata trace with a local family in Puglia than consume all her meals in the lobby of a five - maven hotel .
“ I ’m always calculate for the subculture in the city and how to work that out , ” she recount me .
This was from an Airbnb in Sri Lanka , where she had go to breaker .
Jordan and Garg are already planning to reunify in France this summer for a sequel . Cercle ’s next installment will be hold at theNational Air Space Museum of France . Jordan is consort period on find fitting for their radical of 15 , while Garg and her hubby plan to take everyone to the Soho House for a little relaxation in between the sweaty dance floor .
Now base in Dubai , Garg travels for six months of the year when the desert heat becomes indefensible — she says that she really spends less money traveling to breakers and dancing than she would exist at home full time . Up next is trip the light fantastic under the earth ’s bombastic rider aircraft , in front of a 54 - meter - gamy roquette , and between two supersonic planes . “ One of the company will be in the Eiffel Towerandthey are teaching Edgar Albert Guest to take flight a plane , ” say Garg with a smiling .
medicine is a major reason to travel — and it gets citizenry on planes regardless of their access to expendable income ( see : peoplespendingtheir savings to jaunt to the cities where Beyonce and Taylor Swift were tour ) . At a certain point , though , we must decide for ourselves what the point of change of location is — whether it ’s to engross ourselves in local acculturation or to fist - bulge 31,000 feet in the air .
