daravingwoodster
Active Member
Dates: Sunday 12th – Wednesday 22nd September 2010
Hotel: Mar Y Vent
Group: 5 Male, 3 Female
Spent: £1500 approx (Inc entrance fees, flights & hotel)
Having started clubbing when I turned 18 (now 23) it has always been our aim to visit Ibiza. Many reasons – mainly financial – have prevented us so far. However we decided we'd waited enough and this year it was time.
We like all EDM (except Dubstep) although we are mainly Trance freaks (sorry). Our Pilgrimage actually started on Friday 10th when one of our group was making his debut @ The Gallery – Ministry of Sound. Then on the Saturday 2 of us flew to Berlin for ‘We Are One' (Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren & Underworld) that finished at 6am and we headed straight for the airport to catch a 9am flight to. 3 hours later we landed in Ibiza, grabbed our bags, and headed straight to the hotel (situated about 50 yards from Café Savannah/del Mar/Mambo etc. After reading some not so nice reviews we were expecting a sh!thole but were pleasantly surprised. The apartment was clean, spacious, secure, had a balcony, good shower, adequate kitchen facilities. A bargain at £13/night each. But after a long couple of days, the first thing we did after arriving in the party capital of the world… was to go to bed!
Sunday 12th:
We awoke around 7pm as the rest of our friends (who had sensibly had a quiet night in the night before) arrived. We opened a crate of San Miguel (the first of many) as we unpacked then headed over to We Love… Space around midnight. One slightly paranoid friend asked if he was ok in his ¾ lengths, to which the Spanish bouncer replied to him ‘don't stress, just rave'. This set the tone for the whole trip. After spending about an hour exploring the club, getting lost and mistaking the sunset terrace for the main room, we finally settled in with DJ Hell. I made a quick flyby back to the Sunset Terrace to check out Steve Lawler before heading back to the main room for Joris Voorn. He only played for an hour as it was a ‘live' set. TBH I couldn't tell the difference between that and a normal set, or maybe that was just the alcohol in me? We caught the start of 2manyDJ's before deciding to make a move about 6am as I was beginning to feel the toll of 3 events in 3 countries in 3 nights.
Monday 13th:
The day was like every other day would be. Woke up in the early afternoon, grabbed some cheap food, decide we were still tired, had a siesta, and then woke up in the evening. We started at Café Mambo that night for the Swedish House Mafia's ‘After Sunset' set (Axwell & Ingrosso). This was a great little event, good vibe, busy but still room on the seafront to dance, nice weather, and most importantly FREE! Especially as we took our own beer. Back to the hotel for some more pre-drinks and then we headed into the West End to catch the party bus to Amnesia for Cocoon. We got into Amnesia about 2:30. Absolutely loved the club, felt like I had been there before after seeing it in so many films & music videos. The atmosphere was electric, great crowd and the Ice Cannons! Sven Vath came on around 3 and played till the end and was awesome as ever. The €3 euro bus back into San Antonio was dead easy and a cheap way home!
Tuesday 14th:
Tuesdays @ Amnesia, featuring a ‘7 hour set' from Armin van Buuren. Fortunately we have been clubbing long enough to know there was no way he'd open the night. However we had to make sure so we got to the club about 12:30 to find Roger Sanchez in the main room. As this was the release party for Armin's new album he had a stage erected in room 2 so he could have his singers perform live. Instead of having a warm up DJ play some progressive to get you in the groove for a bit of Trance, they had Brian Cross play what can only be described as ‘Forgettable House'. It made it seem like an age for Armin to show but in reality it was only an hour. Down came the curtain and there he was behind a special disc lighbox stage, queue a few sparks & bangs for a dramatic intro. He ended up playing for just over 5 hours, it was a mixed set, there was a lot of live performances, some good (such as his brother on the guitar) some not so good (Meredith Call, who mimed her first track then sung her second track, which was so bad I wished she had mimed that as well). Whilst these performances made it a different event, it did disrupt any flow to the set from a DJing point of view. He did manage to fit in a few classics such as Energy 52 - Café del Mar (well we were in Ibiza after all) but the highlight was hearing Nadia Ali sing iiO – Rapture live.
Wednesday 15th:
After 5 nights out on the trot, it was time for a night off.
Thursday 16th:
And now for the day I had most been looking forward to. Cream @ Amnesia. We got there early because the main room lineup was so good. Sied van Riel opened with a really good set, and then around 2:30 Ferry Corsten came on. The Ice Cannons were blasting, the crowd was jumping, and the tunes were pumping. He played a lot of tracks of his new mix CD, and we also heard his remix of the new Faithless track for the first time. It was a relief to hear some fresh tunes as some DJ's have been playing the same tracks all year which is really starting to bug me. There was also room to dance as Deadmau5 was playing in the Terrace which handily attracted the odd bellend. He closed on one of the new remixes of Out of the Blue. By this time it was 5am and John O'Callaghan had to practically drag him off the decks. Sadly for me I had been going so hard I had sweated out most of the water/alcohol in my body leaving me feeling dehydrated/hung-over so I made an early departure back to San Antonio, downed 3 liters of water, some legal pills and hit the sack.
Friday 17th
It was one of my mate's 21st so we decided for some reason to have a ‘Chav night' This involved getting stupidly drunk in the hotel room playing Ring of Fire, then hitting the West End (not my thing, bit too much like Malia/Kavos/London's West End for me but I went with the flow) I think the idea was to get more drunk and then possibly stumble into Wonderland @ Eden. Typical us though, 5 minutes into the West End we found a Trance night. Charley's Angels @ Play 2 with Vicky Devine & Bryan Kearney and ended up there the whole night. It was a laugh, despite the place being pretty dead, heard a few classics including Energy 52 – Café del Mar again and eventually staggered home with a kebab!
Saturday 18th
Was considering Hed Kandi @ Es Paradis, mainly as it was our only chance to check the club out but we were so hung-over it turned into another rest day. At least we saved some money.
Sunday 19th
We headed down to Bora Bora to catch some afternoon rays and then had a dance, it wasn't bad, but after hearing so many great things about Bora Bora I found it slightly underwhelming. We were divided about what to do that night. James Zabiela @ Space was tempting but in the end we decided on Judgement Sundays Closing Party @ Eden despite the fact we all hate Judge Jules. It was a new event, a new club, walking distance from the hotel and Cosmic Gate were playing (we are big fans) so it still promised to be a good night. So we buy our tickets, get down there about 1am, go in, only to find Cosmic Gate's flight was delayed 6 hours so they couldn't make it, on top of that Jules would be playing for longer to fill in their slot. AGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
We had a few laughing gas balloons to try and pick us up. Despite those and a good set from Marco V I wasn't feeling it. I didn't like the club, the dancefloor was too small for the size of the club, too many pissheads, too many sweaty men with their shirts off. It reminded me of those towns that have one big club in the centre that everyone gets drunk and goes to every Friday night just because there is nothing else to do, rather then go for musical reasons. Then Jules came on with his wife singing so I bolted to room 2, stepped in the door, heard a Dubstep beat, done a U turn and went home for an early night!
Monday 20th
Talking to those who had been on the Island for most of the summer, they all had one thing to say, ‘whatever you do, go to Circo-Loco @ DC-10 on Monday'… so we did. Sadly it was pissing it down when we got there about 7, so we didn't get to rave through sunset as the sky was dark with storm clouds. DC-10 was an experience though, I was expecting another superclub but it was more like a converted church hall. It took at least 45 mins to really get into it though, probably because I was the few sober people in the whole place. I eventually settled in room 2 (the room as you come into the club). Unfortunately after a while my eyes began to sting really badly because of the cigarette smoke, I'm not sure if it's always like that or because everyone was smoking inside due to the rain. But by 10:30 me and a couple of others couldn't take the smoke any longer so we left and went to Playa den Bossa for some dinner. Whilst there we were given free wristbands to Monday Calling @ Space. We already had tickets for Tiesto but as Space was over the road we decided to pop in for an hour. It appeared the sunset terrace was the only room open, but we still had a laugh, then about 1ish headed over to Privilege. Before the trip we were going to visit Pacha for SHM but after reading the warnings on here about the overcrowding, we begrudgingly opted for Tiesto, mainly as it was a chance to go to Privilege. We queued for about 20 mins (the only queue of the trip) and got n about 2:15 just after Tiesto had come on. I have to say I didn't think much of the club, what is the point of a swimming pool if no-one is allowed near it? All that happened is it got filled with confetti which I bet is a pain to clean every day. The air-con was good (had heard it was a sweat box) the lights & lasers were great but trapeze acts were a bit pathetic really; they were raised up on cardboard cutouts which of bent shapes which looked like cereal boxes, covered with foil then held together using ducktape. The dancers looked bored. And then there was Tiesto. He was awful. Admittedly we have a slightly biased view because we loved & miss the old Tiesto up until 18 months ago. The stuff he plays now is far too pop/indie for me. I didn't fly to Ibiza, pay good money to get into the biggest club in the world to hear Robyn! If I wanted to hear Robyn I would lie in my bed in my house, reach out to my clock radio, and turn on Radio One. Sadly it's too late as the crowd that follow him now look confused when he does drop the occasional Trance track. Then as he was bringing Lethal Industry in, he came on the mic, hyping up his own baseline and then started talking about the weather. STFU.
Tuesday 21st
After a very long day on the Monday, we didn't wake up until nearly 6pm, had some food and then started packing as it was the last day of the trip. Once again we headed for Tuesdays @ Amnesia, no Armin this time, Gareth Emery, Sander van Doorn & headlining was Markus Schulz. Emery started off well but then fell back into his trend of playing all his favourite tracks from last summer mixed in with a few classics such as Energy 52 - Café del Mar. I hadn't seen Sander in a while and he played well, a bit of everything, Trance, Tech & House. Then he also played Café del Mar. I checked out Roger Sanchez for a bit, I'd seen him play 7 hours back @ MOS in August so didn't stay for long, he had a big setup as he was shooting a new video there apparently. Unfortunately for him it was pretty dead I guess as there was no Armin on the lineup and most people on the Island would have been @ Carl Cox's closing party. Sander was still playing when I got back to the main room. In fact Schulz didn't come on until well after 5am, which was a bit disappointing as I was hoping he'd play for at least 2 hours being the headliner. He played a solid set but I hoping for a bit more from the last set of an Ibiza closing party. He did squeeze a couple of classics in though, ending on PVD - For An Angel which came shortly after he dropped Café del Mar by Energy 52……
Wednesday 22nd
3 hours sleep, a rushed shower, clear up and last minute packing and we cleared out of the hotel with a few hours to kill before our flight in the evening.
All in all we loved Ibiza and everything it had to offer. Didn't have any problems with crime etc, even the ‘looky looky' guy's were polite. I think it even exceeded our hopes. We're already looking forward to next year, planning the Space Opening Fiesta weekender and then a similar trip to the one above although with an extra 2 days so we can fit in another Cream. The only problem is it's left me needing a holiday!
Thanks also to all the posters on Ibiza Spotlight, this is my first post but I've been on here all year reading your comments, planning what to do, how & when to do it etc. I figured I should let you know how it went as it was your advice that helped make our first trip so magical. Although if you're still reading this you really should get a job.
Matt
Hotel: Mar Y Vent
Group: 5 Male, 3 Female
Spent: £1500 approx (Inc entrance fees, flights & hotel)
Having started clubbing when I turned 18 (now 23) it has always been our aim to visit Ibiza. Many reasons – mainly financial – have prevented us so far. However we decided we'd waited enough and this year it was time.
We like all EDM (except Dubstep) although we are mainly Trance freaks (sorry). Our Pilgrimage actually started on Friday 10th when one of our group was making his debut @ The Gallery – Ministry of Sound. Then on the Saturday 2 of us flew to Berlin for ‘We Are One' (Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren & Underworld) that finished at 6am and we headed straight for the airport to catch a 9am flight to. 3 hours later we landed in Ibiza, grabbed our bags, and headed straight to the hotel (situated about 50 yards from Café Savannah/del Mar/Mambo etc. After reading some not so nice reviews we were expecting a sh!thole but were pleasantly surprised. The apartment was clean, spacious, secure, had a balcony, good shower, adequate kitchen facilities. A bargain at £13/night each. But after a long couple of days, the first thing we did after arriving in the party capital of the world… was to go to bed!
Sunday 12th:
We awoke around 7pm as the rest of our friends (who had sensibly had a quiet night in the night before) arrived. We opened a crate of San Miguel (the first of many) as we unpacked then headed over to We Love… Space around midnight. One slightly paranoid friend asked if he was ok in his ¾ lengths, to which the Spanish bouncer replied to him ‘don't stress, just rave'. This set the tone for the whole trip. After spending about an hour exploring the club, getting lost and mistaking the sunset terrace for the main room, we finally settled in with DJ Hell. I made a quick flyby back to the Sunset Terrace to check out Steve Lawler before heading back to the main room for Joris Voorn. He only played for an hour as it was a ‘live' set. TBH I couldn't tell the difference between that and a normal set, or maybe that was just the alcohol in me? We caught the start of 2manyDJ's before deciding to make a move about 6am as I was beginning to feel the toll of 3 events in 3 countries in 3 nights.
Monday 13th:
The day was like every other day would be. Woke up in the early afternoon, grabbed some cheap food, decide we were still tired, had a siesta, and then woke up in the evening. We started at Café Mambo that night for the Swedish House Mafia's ‘After Sunset' set (Axwell & Ingrosso). This was a great little event, good vibe, busy but still room on the seafront to dance, nice weather, and most importantly FREE! Especially as we took our own beer. Back to the hotel for some more pre-drinks and then we headed into the West End to catch the party bus to Amnesia for Cocoon. We got into Amnesia about 2:30. Absolutely loved the club, felt like I had been there before after seeing it in so many films & music videos. The atmosphere was electric, great crowd and the Ice Cannons! Sven Vath came on around 3 and played till the end and was awesome as ever. The €3 euro bus back into San Antonio was dead easy and a cheap way home!
Tuesday 14th:
Tuesdays @ Amnesia, featuring a ‘7 hour set' from Armin van Buuren. Fortunately we have been clubbing long enough to know there was no way he'd open the night. However we had to make sure so we got to the club about 12:30 to find Roger Sanchez in the main room. As this was the release party for Armin's new album he had a stage erected in room 2 so he could have his singers perform live. Instead of having a warm up DJ play some progressive to get you in the groove for a bit of Trance, they had Brian Cross play what can only be described as ‘Forgettable House'. It made it seem like an age for Armin to show but in reality it was only an hour. Down came the curtain and there he was behind a special disc lighbox stage, queue a few sparks & bangs for a dramatic intro. He ended up playing for just over 5 hours, it was a mixed set, there was a lot of live performances, some good (such as his brother on the guitar) some not so good (Meredith Call, who mimed her first track then sung her second track, which was so bad I wished she had mimed that as well). Whilst these performances made it a different event, it did disrupt any flow to the set from a DJing point of view. He did manage to fit in a few classics such as Energy 52 - Café del Mar (well we were in Ibiza after all) but the highlight was hearing Nadia Ali sing iiO – Rapture live.
Wednesday 15th:
After 5 nights out on the trot, it was time for a night off.
Thursday 16th:
And now for the day I had most been looking forward to. Cream @ Amnesia. We got there early because the main room lineup was so good. Sied van Riel opened with a really good set, and then around 2:30 Ferry Corsten came on. The Ice Cannons were blasting, the crowd was jumping, and the tunes were pumping. He played a lot of tracks of his new mix CD, and we also heard his remix of the new Faithless track for the first time. It was a relief to hear some fresh tunes as some DJ's have been playing the same tracks all year which is really starting to bug me. There was also room to dance as Deadmau5 was playing in the Terrace which handily attracted the odd bellend. He closed on one of the new remixes of Out of the Blue. By this time it was 5am and John O'Callaghan had to practically drag him off the decks. Sadly for me I had been going so hard I had sweated out most of the water/alcohol in my body leaving me feeling dehydrated/hung-over so I made an early departure back to San Antonio, downed 3 liters of water, some legal pills and hit the sack.
Friday 17th
It was one of my mate's 21st so we decided for some reason to have a ‘Chav night' This involved getting stupidly drunk in the hotel room playing Ring of Fire, then hitting the West End (not my thing, bit too much like Malia/Kavos/London's West End for me but I went with the flow) I think the idea was to get more drunk and then possibly stumble into Wonderland @ Eden. Typical us though, 5 minutes into the West End we found a Trance night. Charley's Angels @ Play 2 with Vicky Devine & Bryan Kearney and ended up there the whole night. It was a laugh, despite the place being pretty dead, heard a few classics including Energy 52 – Café del Mar again and eventually staggered home with a kebab!
Saturday 18th
Was considering Hed Kandi @ Es Paradis, mainly as it was our only chance to check the club out but we were so hung-over it turned into another rest day. At least we saved some money.
Sunday 19th
We headed down to Bora Bora to catch some afternoon rays and then had a dance, it wasn't bad, but after hearing so many great things about Bora Bora I found it slightly underwhelming. We were divided about what to do that night. James Zabiela @ Space was tempting but in the end we decided on Judgement Sundays Closing Party @ Eden despite the fact we all hate Judge Jules. It was a new event, a new club, walking distance from the hotel and Cosmic Gate were playing (we are big fans) so it still promised to be a good night. So we buy our tickets, get down there about 1am, go in, only to find Cosmic Gate's flight was delayed 6 hours so they couldn't make it, on top of that Jules would be playing for longer to fill in their slot. AGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
We had a few laughing gas balloons to try and pick us up. Despite those and a good set from Marco V I wasn't feeling it. I didn't like the club, the dancefloor was too small for the size of the club, too many pissheads, too many sweaty men with their shirts off. It reminded me of those towns that have one big club in the centre that everyone gets drunk and goes to every Friday night just because there is nothing else to do, rather then go for musical reasons. Then Jules came on with his wife singing so I bolted to room 2, stepped in the door, heard a Dubstep beat, done a U turn and went home for an early night!
Monday 20th
Talking to those who had been on the Island for most of the summer, they all had one thing to say, ‘whatever you do, go to Circo-Loco @ DC-10 on Monday'… so we did. Sadly it was pissing it down when we got there about 7, so we didn't get to rave through sunset as the sky was dark with storm clouds. DC-10 was an experience though, I was expecting another superclub but it was more like a converted church hall. It took at least 45 mins to really get into it though, probably because I was the few sober people in the whole place. I eventually settled in room 2 (the room as you come into the club). Unfortunately after a while my eyes began to sting really badly because of the cigarette smoke, I'm not sure if it's always like that or because everyone was smoking inside due to the rain. But by 10:30 me and a couple of others couldn't take the smoke any longer so we left and went to Playa den Bossa for some dinner. Whilst there we were given free wristbands to Monday Calling @ Space. We already had tickets for Tiesto but as Space was over the road we decided to pop in for an hour. It appeared the sunset terrace was the only room open, but we still had a laugh, then about 1ish headed over to Privilege. Before the trip we were going to visit Pacha for SHM but after reading the warnings on here about the overcrowding, we begrudgingly opted for Tiesto, mainly as it was a chance to go to Privilege. We queued for about 20 mins (the only queue of the trip) and got n about 2:15 just after Tiesto had come on. I have to say I didn't think much of the club, what is the point of a swimming pool if no-one is allowed near it? All that happened is it got filled with confetti which I bet is a pain to clean every day. The air-con was good (had heard it was a sweat box) the lights & lasers were great but trapeze acts were a bit pathetic really; they were raised up on cardboard cutouts which of bent shapes which looked like cereal boxes, covered with foil then held together using ducktape. The dancers looked bored. And then there was Tiesto. He was awful. Admittedly we have a slightly biased view because we loved & miss the old Tiesto up until 18 months ago. The stuff he plays now is far too pop/indie for me. I didn't fly to Ibiza, pay good money to get into the biggest club in the world to hear Robyn! If I wanted to hear Robyn I would lie in my bed in my house, reach out to my clock radio, and turn on Radio One. Sadly it's too late as the crowd that follow him now look confused when he does drop the occasional Trance track. Then as he was bringing Lethal Industry in, he came on the mic, hyping up his own baseline and then started talking about the weather. STFU.
Tuesday 21st
After a very long day on the Monday, we didn't wake up until nearly 6pm, had some food and then started packing as it was the last day of the trip. Once again we headed for Tuesdays @ Amnesia, no Armin this time, Gareth Emery, Sander van Doorn & headlining was Markus Schulz. Emery started off well but then fell back into his trend of playing all his favourite tracks from last summer mixed in with a few classics such as Energy 52 - Café del Mar. I hadn't seen Sander in a while and he played well, a bit of everything, Trance, Tech & House. Then he also played Café del Mar. I checked out Roger Sanchez for a bit, I'd seen him play 7 hours back @ MOS in August so didn't stay for long, he had a big setup as he was shooting a new video there apparently. Unfortunately for him it was pretty dead I guess as there was no Armin on the lineup and most people on the Island would have been @ Carl Cox's closing party. Sander was still playing when I got back to the main room. In fact Schulz didn't come on until well after 5am, which was a bit disappointing as I was hoping he'd play for at least 2 hours being the headliner. He played a solid set but I hoping for a bit more from the last set of an Ibiza closing party. He did squeeze a couple of classics in though, ending on PVD - For An Angel which came shortly after he dropped Café del Mar by Energy 52……
Wednesday 22nd
3 hours sleep, a rushed shower, clear up and last minute packing and we cleared out of the hotel with a few hours to kill before our flight in the evening.
All in all we loved Ibiza and everything it had to offer. Didn't have any problems with crime etc, even the ‘looky looky' guy's were polite. I think it even exceeded our hopes. We're already looking forward to next year, planning the Space Opening Fiesta weekender and then a similar trip to the one above although with an extra 2 days so we can fit in another Cream. The only problem is it's left me needing a holiday!
Thanks also to all the posters on Ibiza Spotlight, this is my first post but I've been on here all year reading your comments, planning what to do, how & when to do it etc. I figured I should let you know how it went as it was your advice that helped make our first trip so magical. Although if you're still reading this you really should get a job.
Matt
