First let me say that Pete Tong is always great and I am not interested in Robin Thicke so this is more a review of the general experience than the acts themselves.
Billed to start at 6 and finish at midnight, we didn't want to be first at the party so we decided to show up at 7 and were still amongst the first. Our initial problem was finding our way in. The signs where the driveway to the hotel meets the main road saying 'this way to the concert' pointed at the hotel, so we went up to the hotel and couldn't get into the concert venue. We saw where it was and tried, and got stopped by the doorman who said we needed wrist bands and said we needed to get them from reception. We went to reception and they said we needed to go to the concert entrance which was 200m back to the main road and another 100m along. It would have been nice if the signs were clear in the first place.
Anyway, having got in, we had our wrist bands and since it was still quiet were were able to go out of the concert area and explore the hotel which is, to be frank, pretty A-Grade amazing. There has been some serious investment here. I wonder why? Is this an attempt by the Hard Rock brand to attract more Americans to Ibiza? If it is, then it appears to be working, obviously within the hotel itself, but there also seemed to be more American accents in Ibiza town this year.
Here is my handy hint number 1. There are bars around the concert area but the prices are ridiculous. 12EU for a small bottle of Heineken (the draft was not working on any of the bars) was bad enough, but get this:10 EU for a bottle of Sprite. However, you have your arm band, so go into the hotel and get a drink from their bar at a much more reasonable price with great bar staff and very nice surroundings. (I expect this will become general knowledge soon and they'll clamp down on it)
So to the 'concert' itself. If I recall, there was a warm up DJ until 1900 then another one until 2100. Pete Tong did an hour and a half, then Robin Thicke was booked for half an hour leaving Pete Tong to finish with the last hour. All this information was handily displayed at the bar. I felt sorry for the second DJ who was very good indeed but suffered from the lack of what you might call 'a crowd' for most of his set. By the time Pete Tong came on though it was beginning to get dark and things were starting to hum. I did feel Pete was holding back a bit during his set: This was probably because he didn't want to reach a crescendo of excitement and make Robin Thicke look like an anti-climax. It seemed to me like 30% of the crowd were there to see Robin Thicke, 60% to see Pete Tong and 10% were there because they were staying in the hotel and got in free anyway. I hadn't really thought about this before, but white Americans just DO NOT GET house music.
Bang on cue at 2230 Robin Thicke came on and we shot off to the hotel for a bargain basement drink in luxurious surroundings. However 10 minutes later the bar started to fill up with people saying Robin Thicke had only done 3 songs and Pete Tong was back on. We gulped our drinks down and rushed back to the venue just in time to here Pete Tong dropping Watermat, Bullit, which has got to be one of Ibiza's top dance tunes this year. From that point, Pete let us have it, and we had a great night.
This trend for gigs 6pm to midnight was a new one to me. There have been all day venues in Ibiza for a while but not like this. Ushaia is doing the same....another great venue and another venue closely associated to a hotel. I guess the reasoning is that if you paid 400 quid for a room you don't want to be kept up past midnight by KC and the Sunshine Band (or a more recent equivalent).
So to summarise
1. A good night for 40EU
2. Make sure you have a look round the hotel
3. Don't worry about turning up too early. If we had shown up 3 hours after opening we wouldn't have missed anything
4. Use the hotel bar for a drink.
5. Dancing in the daylight is not normal !
Billed to start at 6 and finish at midnight, we didn't want to be first at the party so we decided to show up at 7 and were still amongst the first. Our initial problem was finding our way in. The signs where the driveway to the hotel meets the main road saying 'this way to the concert' pointed at the hotel, so we went up to the hotel and couldn't get into the concert venue. We saw where it was and tried, and got stopped by the doorman who said we needed wrist bands and said we needed to get them from reception. We went to reception and they said we needed to go to the concert entrance which was 200m back to the main road and another 100m along. It would have been nice if the signs were clear in the first place.
Anyway, having got in, we had our wrist bands and since it was still quiet were were able to go out of the concert area and explore the hotel which is, to be frank, pretty A-Grade amazing. There has been some serious investment here. I wonder why? Is this an attempt by the Hard Rock brand to attract more Americans to Ibiza? If it is, then it appears to be working, obviously within the hotel itself, but there also seemed to be more American accents in Ibiza town this year.
Here is my handy hint number 1. There are bars around the concert area but the prices are ridiculous. 12EU for a small bottle of Heineken (the draft was not working on any of the bars) was bad enough, but get this:10 EU for a bottle of Sprite. However, you have your arm band, so go into the hotel and get a drink from their bar at a much more reasonable price with great bar staff and very nice surroundings. (I expect this will become general knowledge soon and they'll clamp down on it)
So to the 'concert' itself. If I recall, there was a warm up DJ until 1900 then another one until 2100. Pete Tong did an hour and a half, then Robin Thicke was booked for half an hour leaving Pete Tong to finish with the last hour. All this information was handily displayed at the bar. I felt sorry for the second DJ who was very good indeed but suffered from the lack of what you might call 'a crowd' for most of his set. By the time Pete Tong came on though it was beginning to get dark and things were starting to hum. I did feel Pete was holding back a bit during his set: This was probably because he didn't want to reach a crescendo of excitement and make Robin Thicke look like an anti-climax. It seemed to me like 30% of the crowd were there to see Robin Thicke, 60% to see Pete Tong and 10% were there because they were staying in the hotel and got in free anyway. I hadn't really thought about this before, but white Americans just DO NOT GET house music.
Bang on cue at 2230 Robin Thicke came on and we shot off to the hotel for a bargain basement drink in luxurious surroundings. However 10 minutes later the bar started to fill up with people saying Robin Thicke had only done 3 songs and Pete Tong was back on. We gulped our drinks down and rushed back to the venue just in time to here Pete Tong dropping Watermat, Bullit, which has got to be one of Ibiza's top dance tunes this year. From that point, Pete let us have it, and we had a great night.
This trend for gigs 6pm to midnight was a new one to me. There have been all day venues in Ibiza for a while but not like this. Ushaia is doing the same....another great venue and another venue closely associated to a hotel. I guess the reasoning is that if you paid 400 quid for a room you don't want to be kept up past midnight by KC and the Sunshine Band (or a more recent equivalent).
So to summarise
1. A good night for 40EU
2. Make sure you have a look round the hotel
3. Don't worry about turning up too early. If we had shown up 3 hours after opening we wouldn't have missed anything
4. Use the hotel bar for a drink.
5. Dancing in the daylight is not normal !
