There was a time when Ricardo Villalobos was something of an idealist. Apparently. Speaking to the Guardian back in 2017, he said “The music manages to meld the classes together, as long as the dancefloor is bigger than the VIP area.”.
Warming to his theme – and probably mindful that this kind of stuff would go down well with a left-wing newspaper – he continued, saying “In a soccer game, you have the same. You have the president sitting in the place for wealthy and important people, and you have all the other people watching. But then suddenly everyone is behaving the same way – Angela Merkel is jumping around like a hooligan. And this happens in parties, too.”.
He also speaks about his background – having to leave Chile in 1973 after Pinochet led a coup into power – and briefly about his wife and young family.
Where am I going with this, you might ask? Last week, 5 Magazine published an article about plague raves in Zanzibar earlier this year. Host country Tanzania has not reported any coronavirus cases since April 29th last year, and any mention of the virus in the country could get you arrested.
The article is horrifying. There’s really no other way of putting it – but it did lead me to ponder a question. Who would be travelling to Zanzibar at this time anyway? Well, according to 5 Magazine themselves…
https://twitter.com/5Magazine/status/1403954911621095432?s=19
In other words, Villalobos – along with the other plague rave DJs – packed a suitcase and went to play in the Covid infested country to a crowd of ultra-rich people who were paying through the nose to attend.
Casting aside the terrible prospect of infecting his wife and children with Covid-19, Villalobos obviously decided to leave his socialist principles at home for that gig…
