Everest party by Paul Oakenfold: Charity Event or PR-GAG?

Everest party by Paul Oakenfold: Charity Event or PR-GAG?

DJ Paul Oakenfold has just played a gig in the Everest base camp. Was that an innovative way to collect money for charitable purposes or a narcissistic PR gag?

The British DJ Paul Oakenfold, 53, made a name for itself in the British dance music scene in the 1990s. He won two Grammys and is said to have triggered the Second Summer of Love in Ibiza in 1997, supposedly the greatest revolution in British youth culture since the original Summer of Love in 1967.

On April 11th of this year, he organized a dance party at 5,380 m (17,600 ft) above sea level after completing the popular 10-day hike to the Everest base camp in Nepal. Parts of the DJ set were streamed live on Facebook.

The event was extensively reported in the media, with almost all sales outlets with the name of the DJ and the heading or the slogan "Highest Party in the World" or something similar.

I personally can't think of anything worse. I love the mountains and nature because they offer a way to escape the noise and hustle and bustle of modern life. The idea that the wilderness and its nature are disturbed by a dance party seems amazingly inappropriate. The place for dance parties are certainly the night clubs of London and Ibiza or Dubai and Istanbul?

Maybe I'm just a grave and start showing my age. If Mr. Oakenfold does this for a good cause, a few hours of unrest in a remote region of the Himalayas are acceptable, right?

for a good cause?

According to media reports, the aim of Oakenfold was to attract attention to the effects of global warming and collect donations to help the survivors of the earthquake in Nepal 2015, in which almost 9,000 people were killed and thousands of further homeless.

It remains unclear how this event achieves these goals. In a video on the BBC website, Oakenfold describes the event as "for a good cause". Elsewhere, he says: "I would like to support the reconstruction and bring light to the environment ... I would like to contribute to it."

other reports mention that the proceeds from his tour of Supporting Nepal’s Children and Himalayan Trust UK go and that his DJ equipment of the Denon brand will be donated to a local DJ school in Kathmandu. So far, no details have been published about how much the Everest party has collected or intended for these charity organizations.

Despite these completely large gestures, the cynic in me wonders whether Oakenfold's Everest-Party had more to do with promoting his latest project SoundTrek and the associated tour and the associated album to help as Nepal.

painting books and pens to bring them to the local children of Khunjung on behalf of #SoundTrek and one of our most important charity @nepalschildren pic.twitter.com/b0nzebit0v

- Paul Oakenfold (@Pauloakenfold) April 4, 2017

I thought I might have overlooked something, so I looked at Paul Oakenfold's website. I could not find a single indication of the charity organizations that he supports. The only mention (for which you really have to search) is a embedded tweet (above) from his Twitter feed, which is undoubtedly lost over time.

Even the Facebook page of SoundTrek does not seem to mention donations or consciousness formation. This is from her 'About' section:

"SoundTrek is a number of adventures to the most impressive places in the world to present music cultures from all over the world, starting with Mt. Everest."

Then: "Paul Oakenfold puts his pioneering role on the inner Fort [sic] the electronic dance scene, this time with the musical medium in the most remote corners of the earth, starting with the everest!"

Alt = “Paul-Oakenfold-Everest-Basecamp-SoundTrek-3 ″> SoundTrekadventures um, and the children?

an exercise in narcissism

mountaineers at Everest is already being accused of narcissism. There is the image of the wealthy banker who bought the highest mountain on earth, or the extreme mountaineer, who absolutely wants to climb another summit. Such motivations are anything but ideal, but at least these climbers are there to deal with nature - and not to pursue a ambiguous striving to "present music cultures from all over the world".

I'm afraid that Paul Oakenfold and SoundTrek are more about headlines and hashtags than helping the children in Nepal. There are many other ways to collect money for these purposes than to fly half the earth, to carry music equipment into the highest mountain ranges in the world and to play dance music in a normally silent part of the planet.

oakkenfold's quote in the outside magazine is quite revealing:

"" I have played all the important festivals and all big stages and clubs, and do not understand me wrong, they are great, but they start to empathize with everyone ... The Everest opens exciting new doors and that is what inspires me. It enables me to be challenged in this phase of my career and really think about my legacy. "

Basically, he bored a bit and is looking for something new? I can hardly believe that reducing global warming was motivation for his expedition. In fact, he explains in the same article: "We had to have shipped [Our Equipment], then driven, then put it in a helicopter and transported by a team of Sherpas."

has Everest not experienced enough commerce and drama in recent years without being transformed into Ibiza in height, even if it is "only" for a day? In any case, when Oakenfold to the Everest base camp-or anywhere else-want to hike and collect money for good purposes on the go, then I support and encourage it.

I would also fully support him if he wants to donate the proceeds to his last appearances for charitable purposes, and admire him for his generosity. But please, can you do that in a night club and not on a mountain slope?

I personally think Simon Lowe, managing director of the expedition company Jagged Globe, best gets to the point:

"To be honest, I have to hand over - but then I go to the mountains because of their beauty and calmness than for narcissistic reasons."

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is the true story of a 24-hour period on Everest, which started with a storm and ended with the highest death rate in a season in the history of the summit.

Mission statement: Dreamstime

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