Blackouts Cast a Shadow Over the 2026 El Cuyo Beach Festival

With the El Cuyo Beach Festival just weeks away, hotel operators and tourism businesses in the small coastal town of Yucatán are counting on the event to boost occupancy during the summer vacation season. But persistent power outages and water shortages are tempering their optimism.

Municipal authorities have scheduled the festival over two weekends: Friday, July 24, through Sunday, July 26, and Saturday, Aug. 1, through Sunday, Aug. 2. The lineup includes sports competitions, live music, and family-friendly activities for both visitors and residents.

So far, bookings have been slow to pick up. Hotels and cabins in El Cuyo remain below 50% occupancy, according to local tourism providers.

Late announcement, ongoing outages

Business owners point to two factors behind the sluggish reservations: the late release of festival dates and recurring failures in the town’s electrical grid. In recent weeks, breakdowns along main distribution lines have knocked out power for hours at a time, sometimes across most of the community.

Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Federal Electricity Commission), or CFE, crews have responded to the outages, but tourism operators say repair times remain slow — a problem that affects both visitors’ experience and residents’ daily lives.

The outages have a secondary consequence: when the power goes out, pumps supplying the town’s potable water system stop working, leaving homes and businesses without running water for extended periods. With no lasting fix in sight from authorities or the utility, some residents have turned to solar panels — a costly but increasingly necessary workaround.

Hotel operators say prospective guests frequently ask about the reliability of electricity, water and internet service before booking, since blackouts also disrupt telecommunications in the area.

Despite the logistical hurdles, tourism providers expect reservations to pick up in the coming week as the festival dates approach and Mexico’s summer vacation period continues.

What’s on the program

The festival lineup includes live music, beach volleyball, soccer and basketball tournaments, a color run and an artisan pavilion. Organizers also announced a second edition of the local “Exatlón” obstacle-course circuit and a neon-themed music festival, among other events designed to draw visitors of all ages.

El Cuyo, on Yucatán’s eastern coast, sits within the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, a protected area home to more than 300 bird species, including colonies of pink flamingos. Steady winds have made the town one of Mexico’s top destinations for kitesurfing, drawing foreign athletes from November through August. Its position on the peninsula’s northeastern tip also makes it one of the few spots on the coast where both sunrise and sunset can be seen over open water at certain times of year.

Quick facts

• El Cuyo Beach Festival runs July 24-26 and Aug. 1-2, 2026
• Hotel and cabin occupancy currently sits below 50%
• Recurring power outages have also disrupted the town’s water supply and internet service
• CFE crews have responded to grid failures, though residents describe repair times as slow
• El Cuyo lies within the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve and is known internationally for kitesurfing