Okay, so a brief rundown on how things went down on Friday:
13:00 - customary chupito in the office. God, I love my job.
14:00 - lunch at Savannah. Because you can't do a clubbing marathon on an empty stomach! I opted for the fried calamari with chive mash and kale. I really rated mine - and I think everybody else was happy with their choices. Price wise, a lot more reasonable than other venues along that strip.
15:30 - Cuckoo Land, Ibiza Rocks. Griff playing vocal house. Wasn't particular busy at this point, but we were early.
16:30 - Pool Party, O Beach. Very busy - busier than IR. Soundtrack stuck to the O Beach script and there were some lovely dancers doing a parade and a drag act on compere duties. And christ, it was hot. Back to the office to cool down under the aircon and squeeze in another cheeky chupito.
18:00 - Love Amplified takeover, Benimussa Park - a victim of simply picking the wrong date (Swedes at Ushuaia, Solomun at Shadows) which I'm sure they wouldn't have known when this went in the diary. Although we were there quite early, things didn't look too rosy. Melé handing over a dance floor to Josh Butler with a dozen people scattered around, most of them talking and drinking and a few others at the bars. I hope it picked up for them later on.
19:30 - Joseph Capriati Invites @ Destino - Destino the right level of busy for me. Unfortunately it became quite overcast whilst the mugginess remained, so we didn't see Destino in full bloom. Denis Sulta wasn't quite so reckless with his mixing than the last time I saw him. There was still a few odd choices, but overall he was a lot better. Still a weird booking for me. Capriati came on at 20:00 and the birthday celebrations began.
20:45 - Tantra. Wasn't on our initial list. Round of cocktails & chupitos.
21:15 - Children of the 80s @ Hard Rock Hotel - couldn't believe how popular this was! A thorough entry check. Strong local turnout. Unknown DJ bludgeoning mixes and then some girl got on the mic and said something like "I love you Ibiza" and the crowd roared. All a bit surreal. I'm glad the party is a hit for them. It doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't.
21:45 - The Swedes @ Ushuaia - watched from the comfort of the Tower. A full Ushuaia looks pretty spectacular from up there. They came on at 22:00 to a spectacular light show. Old man me thought "
I'm glad we're up here, and not down there in that crowd."
23:00 - Magadalena presents Shadows w/ Solomun & Tale Of Us - as I mentioned in a few other threads, Cova Santa was rammo. Too busy for me. We retreated to the top bar, though muscling through the crowd to and from wasn't fun. A few good moments: TOU playing the unofficial remix of Billie Eilish they've been supporting recently. It's by Erly Tepshi and EarthLife apparently. For me, though, it was this curveball:
Any other forumers notice Dixon turning up in the booth? I don't think he actually played any records.
00:15 - Scheduled to be Defected then Es Paradis, but we had to reroute. After deliberation, it was decided we were to head to San Rafael.
01:00 - SuperMartXé @ Privilege - bearing in mind how early we got there, I thought it was pretty busy! Not sure who was playing, but he mixed in with some current and classic house music. All pretty accessible stuff. The stage show hadn't started yet, but you could see giant neon crucifixes through the drape. Lord only knows...
01:30 - VGBDOS @ Amnesia - Luciano again playing the middle shift on the terrace from 01:30-04:30 with tINI on after, so this actually worked out well for us timing wise. The DJ booths in both rooms have been moved. Terrace position was in the middle to the right hand side as you walk in - next to those small toilets. In the club, it was positioned on the dance floor to the left-hand side with the right side of the room partitioned off, thus massively reducing the size of room.
Got to say, the terrace was busy enough - although plenty of space at either side (or end!) Luciano was in loopy mood, but I actually quite liked some of what he played. And the dance floor was enjoying themselves. Some cool lasers deployed and a puppet walking through the crowd.
The club room told a different story. Much like Josh Wink and Kerry Larkin before him, Omar-S playing to two dozen people. I think this party should go down to a single room. The terrace worked just fine, even if it could've done with a few more numbers. But the whole venue? Not seeing it.
By this point, we received word that Eden & Es Paradis were back in business.
02:45 - Defected. Absolutely rockin'. Whole venue full. Armand van Helden in control of proceedings playing mostly his own tracks and remixes.
03:15 - Es Paradis. Urban music policy at, erm,
Urban Policy. Quite a departure from Clockwork here the Friday before. Predictable urban music even the most casual of observers would recognise:
03:45 - B!Crazy @ HEART. I'd not been to this party before, but JCA's podcasts are always super tight, plus he books some good guests to join him. Numbers wise, this wasn't packed out. But the dance floor was decent. HEART is always a funny one to judge crowd-wise, with the VIP diners in before midnight. Musically, it was sound:
For me, this is a typical HEART track, reminiscent of the kind of music you'll hear at Satori presents Maktub, Do Not Sit, MUSE etc.
04:15 - Dixon presents Transmoderna @ Pacha -
full report here. Nothing more to add, other than one more track:
What I love about this track, is that there's a part of it that reminds me of the Outlander - The Vamp record that Sven loves for the last 2 years.
05:45 - DC10 for Boiler Room - In the past I've made no secret that the DC10 hype is a bit lost of me. But on this morning, surrounded by the freaks and colourful character and with actual space to dance, it's like I finally got it. Seth also played the best I've seen him - I'm really not a fan otherwise. The highlight for me, was this:
Got me gassed for 13 September now!
Sometime between 07:00 - 08:00 - a reinvigorating jump in the pool and one final chupito before being taken back to the other side of the island. Job done!
*timings are approx.