The 7th edition of the SXM Festival closed last Monday after a week of madness and festive music for the 
6.500 lovers of electro, techno and house.
Scheduled from March 11 to 18, this 2024 edition brought together the best international and local DJs, offering memorable performances for spectators at several sites such as Happy Bay, adorned with a sublime enchanted forest, Boho Beach, the Rainbow Café, the Bamboo House, Kalatua Beach, without forgetting the Panorama, Villa Party and Boat Party events. At the end of this rhythmic week that the rain failed to dull, Krystel Arbia, co-organizer of the SXM festival with Julian Arbia, draws up an initial assessment: “We had as many festival-goers as last year but this year , it was the locals who saved the festival.” Indeed, given the global economic situation, the number of international festival-goers has fallen compared to the massive attendance of previous years: “it really warms our hearts to have had Saint-Martin residents and metropolitan residents at the event” testifies Krystel. If the organizing team is delighted with the progress of this edition described as the most beautiful since the creation of the SXM Festival, a serious problem has somewhat tainted everyone's good mood: "The excessive presence and controls of the gendarmes at the exterior of the sites created a lot of traffic problems and bad experiences for customers, especially loyal international customers who considered the daily road checks totally abusive towards them. For our part, we absolutely agree to work on prevention, but we remain mixed in the face of this situation which has certainly ensured security but also spoiled the experience of festival-goers, whether local or international.” There is no doubt that prevention remains important for the organizers who have also recorded very few first aid interventions throughout the duration of the festival "but at this scale, it negatively affects the event" adds Krystel Arbia who worked upstream, notably with a specialized association, to provide festival-goers with a thousand free breathalyzers and strengthen security in the parking area and on the festival sites.
To overcome this problem, Krystel is already thinking of setting up a public transport system specifically for the SXM Festival so that festival-goers can arrive at the site by bus and leave in the same way, in complete safety: “It could possibly be to facilitate the work of the gendarmes and above all, to increase road safety, which is clearly a priority.”
As for the artists, some of whom were affected by this problem, the joy is unanimous after this 7th edition, with a nice spotlight on female artists and parity: “We are one of the festivals with the most women on the line -up with a sought-after musical choice and the most women in the team for coherent management.” Building on this positive assessment, the organizers are already working on preparing for the 8th edition by maintaining the course: to make the island of Saint-Martin shine once a year but to promote it throughout the year: “We know Saint-Martin as the Friendly Island, now it’s also the Party Island.” _VX
5,519 total views
No comments