Mayan Apocalypse Parties

"We feel pretty confident that if the aliens do in fact fly down and destroy us all, we'll be on the front lines," says Corey Johnson, Skrillex's stage designer, in an email from Paris. (The DJ's manager declined to comment on the shoot-the-moon attempt described by Reyneri.)

Lazarus insists his intentions are spiritual, that Day Zero will be more than a party. But he's no fool, and he knows the "never-before-seen site" (per its website), with three limestone pyramid re-creations, two cenotes, four swimming pools and an abundance of Mayan-inspired sculpture, is a more appropriate location for uninhibited hedonism, should it transpire, than the actual ruins of 1,000-year-old walled city Coba.

PHOTO BY JIMMY GIEGERICH

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More About

• Damian Lazarus
• Daniel Pinchbeck
• Skrillex
• Lab
• Festivals and Parades

He doesn't want to talk numbers, but his team is preparing for upward of 3,000 guests. And if there are Mayan elders leading all-night peyote ceremonies, well, he doesn't know anything about that.

Imagine a scene like Ibiza's DC10, where a throng of the toned and tanned bob to house music under translucent sun canopies, spiked with the psychedelic unruliness of Burning Man.

It's all too risky to host in public, which is probably why Lazarus didn't procure a permit for the beach. Or because it's too hard: Just ask the organizers behind Time and Space, a semi-annual, new-age party previously thrown in rural towns outside Mexico City. At press time, they were unable to announce the exact location for their party with Do Lab favorite Shpongle, saying only that it would be in Tulum.

One thing's for sure: An epic night awaits, and beyond that perhaps even a lesson or two learned. Our apocalyptic future, it seems, is bright.