Privilege, Pasha, Space, Ushuaia, Amnesia, these are five of the dozen or so major clubs that basically run Ibiza (pronounced Ibeetha, Ibitza, or just plain Ibiza, depending on who you talk to). The island operates for six months a year, in October 95% of the population leave and the island sleeps during the winter. In April they return and the party begins again.
In the Summer the party never stops. During the day small beach clubs operate until dark. Once the sun goes down Ibiza goes quiet as everyone gets a couple of hours of sleep, because at midnight the big clubs open their doors and for the next seven hours the best DJ's in the world will pump electronic dance music for thousands of people. At 7 AM Ibiza is quiet again as people catch a few more hours sleep, because its about to start all over again shortly. As far as I can tell there's only two types of music heard in Ibiza. Most of it is electronic dance music but occasionally you'll hear some reggae too. No matter where you are in ibiza there will be a bar nearby playing dance music.
Of course, if you're not the partying type there's always the beach, other than that there's not much else to do in Ibiza. You could always take the bus or scooter to another town, but you'll only find more clubs and beaches anyway. I didn't go to the beach clubs because I like my sleep and the afternoon is used to prepare for the nightclubs.
One of the many beaches in Ibiza.
A group of us visit the club clothing stores to check out the official merchandise, on the way back we visit a local ticket guy. Myself and another guy, Aman, decide to go to Amnesia's foam party. The others go to Pasha. We get to Amnesia at about 1:30 AM and the party is good, at about 5:30 AM everybody moves from one dance floor to another. This floor has a cat walk above it, full of scantly clad women manning large foam cannons. The party starts and foam rains down for about 10 minutes. I bask in its awesomeness until the foam has reached my chest, its at this point i realise i'm soaking wet and my iPhone is in my money belt at my waist. I quickly mourn its loss and keep partying anyway, later, when I had time to check it, I found it wet but still working. WIN! I take a taxi back the hostel soaking wet and cold.
I wake at midday. This is the day I've waited six months for, Armin Van Buuren is playing at Privilege for A State Of Trance. He's the best in the world at what he does and the main reason I came to Spain in the first place. We find that one of the other night clubs, Ushuaia, has an early performance, finishing at midnight, so we decide to go to Ushuaia, followed immediately after by Privilege. Tonight's going to be a long one.
Ushuaia is actually part of a hotel, a large outdoor stage in front of a pool, surrounded by hotel rooms. Nervo, two Australian sisters are the primary DJ's tonight. The performance is amazing and includes acrobatics and pyrotechnics, things are always better when you add explosions. We head back to the hostel to pick up another room mate and taxi it to Privilege.
Nervo, at Ushuaia
Privilege is big, really big, the biggest club in the world. You know that feeling you get when going to a theme park and you see the roller coasters off in the distance for the first time, I got that feeling when I first saw this building. Located by itself in the middle of the island, its probably a little bigger than a football field and ~30 meters tall, Privilege can reportedly accommodate between ten to fifteen thousand people at any one time and tonight it was packed. Performers dance on platforms and on stage, they hang from the ceiling and perform aerobatics. White smoke bellows down upon the party goers while jets of fire erupt from the stage. Oh, it also has a pool in the middle, you know, because why not?
Armin Van Buuren starts his set just as I hit the floor. The others I'm with are ahead of me because I had to spend twenty minutes buying water for 10 euro a bottle. But it looks like they've only moved about ten meters towards the front of the stage anyway. It takes about 30+ minutes to move closer to the stage, a distance of about 30 meters. My movies show the slow progression up the ramp to the stage.
Armin Van Buuren
The next few hours of were probably the best I've ever experienced. I've tried three times to put in to words what it was like but nothing I say gives it justice. Some people won't understand the attraction but its difficult to explain, at least on paper.
Luckily I have video, lots of video. But I'll probably need to dub over the sound with new audio before it's watchable, the mic on the camera can't handle that much bass. I took some video with the iPhone too, that turned out pretty well. links to some are below.
The party ends at 7 AM, as the sun rises. The last 10 hours has been amazing. That day everybody parts ways as they are moving on, except me, I have one more day. I had plans to go to Space, another club that night but was drained from the two nights before, plus I had to catch a midday flight back to Barcelona the next day. I ended up getting some much needed rest instead.
Me, Hector, Aman and Scott
In short, Ibiza is Disneyland for anyone who really wants to party. It's not all young people either, you'll see people in their 40s and 50s at these clubs too.
Above is a link to some of my iPhone videos, separated by location. They aren't the best I have but the cameras videos are to big to upload. I would recommend the Ushuaia vids at the moment, until I can work with the other stuff.
