Shamans and local Huicholes people got involved too, giving the party their blessing and support. There were moments over the 24 hours that were magical. They were like, 'Right, we're here, what do you need us to do?' That was amazing. Not groups of people, individuals from Tokyo, from Tel Aviv, all over. I just thought, 'Who are these people?' Turns out they were kids who had flown in from all over the world to help as volunteers. When I arrived a week before the event, there were 50 or 60 people working, carrying shit, making stuff, painting, putting stuff up, cutting shitdown. “We literally built everything from scratch and pulled in a lot of favours. “Everything that could possibly have been thrown at us as a way to try and tell us not to do the event, happened,” he says. The site was difficult to access, there was no power, and the venture ended up costing him a fortune despite its attendance. Just a few weeks later, he succeeds in gathering together 4000 people in the shadow of a Mayan pyramid in Playa Del Carmen in Mexico.The likes of Trentemøller, 3D from Massive Attack, James Lavelle, Jamie Jones and many of the aforementioned Crosstown crew join him for the Day Zerofestival, intended to celebrate the end of the Mayan calendar, and possibly the end of the world. And bringing them all together under one roof is Lazarus, the founder of Crosstown Rebels, spindly and dressed in black, standing at the console in front of an undulating blanc mange of 3000 grinning northern ravers looking like an acid house Mick Fleetwood. Ever the Frenchman, Garnier stands on the side of the stage in the cavernous main roomwith a glass of red wine, probably the only glass of red wine in the house, while Lombardo bounces up and down, hands in the air. It proves to be a long night, of friends playing music, and whenthey're not playing music, dancing together. There's also two of his very old friends, a couple of chaps called Sasha, something of a citizen of the world, and, from Paris, Laurent Garnier. There's Danny Daze from Miami, and statistician and artist Deniz Kurtel from New York, via Turkey. Maceo Plex has travelled in from Barcelona, and Subb-an from Berlin. Francesca Lombardo from Lake Garda in Italy, but now resident in London. At Manchester's Warehouse Project on a freezing night in December, he's hauled in his crew from the four corners of the world to be by his side. There seems to be something about Damian Lazarus that inspires loyalty. Celebrating 10 fiercely independent years of always innovative house and techno in 2013, the Lazarus man opens up about his path to dancefloor domination, rising from the figurative dead, his belief in the Crosstown “family”, the Rebel Rave concept and what the future holds. “I saw that as a great opportunity to gather all of our tribes together and connect them to the Mayan philosophy and the Mayan land and to bring everyone together for a joyous celebration of music, art, and performance.Damian Lazarus is the leader of Crosstown Rebels - not just a label, but a globe-trotting party and network of likeminded artists. “If you look deeper into what the Mayans were actually saying, it was the closing of one chapter cycle and the opening of a new one,” he says. Damian and crew, however, took a much more optimistic approach to the date. Taking place at the Ak-Tun-Ak in Dos Ojos Cenote Park, one of the largest underwater cave systems in Mexico, it’s easily one of the more extravagant locations to throw a house and techno festival.ĭay Zero began in December 2012, coinciding with the end of the Mayan calendar and what many were hailing as the end of the world. The pinnacle of this utopian dancefloor vision, however, is Day Zero: Crosstown Rebels’ mythical jungle party in Tulum. Anyone who’s been to one of Lazarus’s events, whether it be his 24-hour Get Lost party in Miami or his beachside Rebel Rave in Peru, knows precisely what he’s getting at.
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