Review pic Solomun plus1 pacha ibiza

Ibiza 2009 summer review….

ibiza 2009 summer season reviewWith the large number of clubs and events in Ibiza every year you can be sure to have surprises. This summer saw some changes in the clubbing landscape, and the first big bang news came from Roger Sanchez who announced his move from Pacha to Amnesia.

Instead, as in the past seven years of Monday nights at Pacha, his Release Yourself took place on Tuesdays at the newly designed (and indeed very good) terrace of Amnesia, while on the same evening Dutch trance masters Armada continue dominated the dance floor of the main room.

With the removal of Roger from the posh house club, Pacha lost its second crowd puller! Already 2008 Pete Tong had moved to the other end of the island into Eden and successfully launched his new events series Wonderland on Friday nights.

What else happened in Ibiza this season? After six flourishing years, the UK house label Hed Kandi seperated from El Divino in order to take off at Space on Saturdays. After all the rumours around the rebuilding of the marina and the closure of the El Divino, the promoters probably wanted to go safe. A bitter loss for the extravagant club at Marina Botafoch since Hed Kandi had been the strongest remaining night at El Divino.

Amnesia was one of the absolute winners this season with its unbeaten events like Cocoon, Cream and now Release Yourself. Not only that the club won the International Dance Music Award (IDMA) in March in Miami as Best Global Club for the third time in succession, it was also welcoming back La Troya on Wednesdays! The famous Spanish mega-event had moved 2008 from Amnesia to Space, much to the regret of thousands of fans, and after the fateful escapade repentantly returned to Amnesia in 2009.

Space build up a new successful concept on Thursday nights (“Be”) with residents Tom Novy, Guy Gerber, Elio Riso and Chris Liebing. Last summer was a little disaster for Space because the island’s authorities (after years of ignoring the uncontrolled excesses of wild party tourism in Ibiza) started an anti-fun campaign with banning the after-hours: A political blowback especially for the good old lady Space and the controversial club DC10 which were especially know for the daytime parties.

No more daytime parties in Ibiza – a still ongoing shock within the international clubbing community. Since Ibiza for most visitors means sun, means light, means daytime so that the restriction of the opening hours – applied not only on the clubs – lead to loss of clients this year and some of the affected venues even found themselves in serious existential problems.

A problem for the iconic bars and restaurants in Ibiza-Town came with the extremely bad parking situation this season. Locals and visitors were really pissed about that. Understandably, because holiday makers, who have only a few days to enjoy their stay, were losing 45 minutes or more, just because there was no parking space.

So not only the times of going out had changed because of the new laws, also the areas where the people tend to go had shifted. With the parking problems in the city, many people preferred to have dinner and drinks at Talamanca or Marina Botafoch where the parking situation is less chaotic or went straight to Playa d’en Bossa beach to spend their time in one of the new beautiful sea side locations.

2009 saw the opening of some really cool beach clubs as Sands, Delano or Ushuaia. Here daytime partying is still possible from the afternoon and we saw Luciano or Tania Vulcano playing in front of a frenetic crowd, enjoying the great tunes and the wonderful sunsets.

2009 was again a wonderful season for lovers of electronic music in Ibiza, and there will be a lot of new movements going on in 2010 for sure. See you there!

yours PARTYSAN Ibiza