17 Oct To club in Ibiza
Ibiza. Fall 2017. 5 full days, 5 parties.
Back from this trip for 4 days and I already can tell you that somewhere in the future I will visit this place again.
What I want to do with this post is to give you an idea about each party that I attended, the prices, the clubs and not lastly the music and atmosphere.
Before I start doing this I feel I should mention that I’ve been going to house parties for about 18 years now, seen 99% of the DJ’s that mixed and are still mixing over these years, been to big events like Sensation White in Amsterdam or Exitfest in Serbia or attended parties at The Ministry of Sound in London or Pacha in Barcelona.
Nonetheless I have found Ibiza to be special and some parties made me fell in love again with this kind of events while others were a pure disappointment.
So to start this post the 5 parties I attended in Ibiza were:
- 14th of Sept- Amnesia closing party 1
- 15th of Sept- Hi Glitterbox
- 16th of sept- Ants at Ushuaia
- 17th of Sept-Solomun at Pacha
- 18th of Sept-Circoloco at DC10
Before I get into more details I want to mention the fact that with the exception of DC10 all clubs can be reached by the DiscoBus. The price is cheap, 3 euros/way and it saves a lot of trouble.
DC10 can be reached in 2 ways:
- The stupid way: take the Discobus going to Ushuaia and get off at the end, 1 station after Hi. From there walk for about 2/3 kilometers(stupid as I said)
- From ibiza town (Old city) the price is 12.85 euro and it is really fast and comfortable.
To mention here also that the DiscoBus has certain hours on which he comes so if you just missed one you can relax and wait 30 minutes for the other…which is not pleasant at all.
Since I stayed in Ibiza Town I got the DiscoBus from the Port. But even if you are accommodated in another area check to see if this bus comes near you because it is a cheap and OK way to reach Amnesia, Pacha, Ushuaia or Hi.
Cost per party:
I managed to secure all my tickets(except Ushuaia and Dc10) thru www.ibiza-spotlight.com, the ticket for Ushuaia was bought from the club’s page and the ticket from DC10 from an official store in Ibiza.
The prices were as follow:
- Cream Ibiza Closing Party Part 1 Standard Ticket, Amnesia – Thursday 14 September, 2017-50 EUR
- Glitterbox Standard Ticket, Hï Ibiza – Friday 15 September, 2017-45 EUR
- Ushuaïa Ibiza – ANTS (16/09/2017)- 40 EUR
- Solomun +1 Standard Ticket, Pacha – Sunday 17 September, 2017-73 EUR
- Circoloco@DC10 18 Septembe, 2017 -50 EUR
So as you can see the prices fall in the same price range with only one exception.
Cost of water:
Yes, you may find this odd but regardless of what you drink sooner or later you’ll end up deinking a bottle of water. I for example stay away from alcohol on most ocasions so the price of water is relevant to me. Also by knowing how much a bottle of water is you can estimate how much are the rest of the drinks.
Before starting please note that all bottles of water were 0.33 cl not 0.5 as you are used to in most places.
- Amnesia-9 eur
- Hi-12 eur
- Ushuaia-9 eur
- Pacha-9 eur
- Dc10-5 eur
As you can see prices are pretty high and on the rise in Ibiza. Considering the new investments in 5 stars hotels and the desire to shift more the tourism towards luxury next year you could easily add 1/2 euros/ bottle of water.
The music:
I will write in this part the performers for each night then in the last part of the post take each club and tell you my impressions for that night.
In Ibiza you can’t really go wrong. Each night many famous DJ mix so you can rest assured that you can pick one from the many parties available.
I will also list only the most important DJ’s for that night for me. I chose this clubs and parties so I can see them and experience the feeling in each club.
- Amnesia- Fatboy Slim and Paul van Dyk.
- Hi- David Morales & Roger Sanchez
- Ushuaia- Sneak, Joris Voorn, Yousef
- Pacha- Solomun
- DC10- Martinez Brothers and Marco Carola
Club wear:
I think this is an important topic because I too searched for this on google before going there. It would be a shame to travel all this way and get rejected at the entrance for dressing inappropriate.
This being said I had a standard “ uniform” that was composed of a simple pair of shorts(elegant not sport), a pair of sneakers and t-shirts. I never entered the VIP so beware other dress codes could be applied there.
Overall feeling and impressions:
- Amnesia.Great first night with Fatboy Slim mixing on the Terrace. I’m not a PvD fan so I spent my time dancing to Mark Knight and Fatboy Slim. The club was full, people were dancing, lots of Englishmen from St Antonio, in a word it was a perfect way to start my trip to Ibiza.
I would definitely go here again especially for a night at Cocoon with Sven or for one of those nights when Carl Cox visits this club.
Fatboy is Fatboy so you can pretty much know what to expect from him in terms of DJing but it still amazes me how he feels and entertains the crowd and how he makes them dance.
Overall a good night and I’m happy I attended it.
- Hi. For me it was the crown of the trip. The Theatre is amazing, packed with people dancing, the dancers, the show, the way the club is designed all made this one of the best nights I ever attended to and that says a lot considering my background.
If you have the chance don’t miss a Glitterbox party. It will make you feel good and if Morales or Sanchez are mixing then you’re in for a big treat.
- Ushuaia. A pool party starting in the day next to a big hotel? Sign me up please. Ants prove to be a formidable brand, the whole setting is great, the pool, the ants glued on the walls, the small DJ booth and the big stage. Sneak killed it and people kept on dancing till the end.
You also must try this party. Nothing fancy to wear, people coming from the beach but happy and wanting to hear great music and dance.
- Pacha. Never again. It left me a bitter taste starting with the price, the schedule, the sound system, the size of the ring and ending with Solomun’s performance.
The club is small, very small and the ring to dance in is a joke. Out of the desire to cram more VIP tables it left just a small portion available for the party people who just want to dance.
Crowded, with high prices, a bad room split and a sound system I disliked, Pacha Ibiza is nothing like Pacha Barcelona where I had an amazing time on New Year’s party when Luciano took over the decks and delivered amazing music.
Out of all the people attending parties on the island I got no vibe from most of the participants at this event unlike other places where joy and laughter could be read on many people’s faces.
Add to this the fact that when we arrived a schedule was posted then after 15 minutes another one appeared making me listen to the atrocious sound of Mind Against for 3 full hours until Solomun appeared.
As for Solomun, and I know this will bring a lot of hate, I think that he is an over inflated DJ. I watched him a few times and each time I swore it to be the last, only to be dragged again by my friends to his events.
For me this was the worst night of the trip and I don’t recommend this experience to nobody.
- DC10. Hmmmm this is tough. DC10 is something of a mixed feeling.
The music that night was amazing, simply amazing when The Martinez and Corola made us dance for hours but the bad part of it is the small size.
That place is sooo crammed that I would never recommend it to any girl under 170 cm. I tried entering the room 3 times and got stuck near the wall only to be pushed back by the endless tides of people walking and trying to move.
After this night I must confess I left my sneakers at the hotel because they were absolutely destroyed. Dirties, stepped on, cuts on them. Never been stepped so many times in my life and I’m hard to miss at 190 cm(6’3).
Would I go again? I don’t know. The music, the people were incredible, trying to dance all the time but it was just too crowded.
I clearly wouldn’t bring a girlfriend there unless I didn’t care that much for her feet and for the tens and hundreds of hands feeling your ass or other parts of your body.
So for a short recap: for me Hi was the highlight of the trip and Pacha was a letdown.
Mixed with 2 other great nights at Ushuaia and Amnesia and a 50-50 night at DC10 it all makes up for a great trip to this famous island.
As I said in the beginning I will come again to Ibiza some day because I had a great time here, met lovely people, ate some great food and really attended some great parties.