alright guys, no posts here for a long time - apologies. time for some 2012 closing party chronicles!
well the last clubbing weekend of the season proved to be a hell of a dancing marathon as foreseen, with parties going end-to-end from friday night until today morning. we all know it's still not done with the second part of sankeys closing tonight, but that's the last biggie then.
first things first, i think the best thing about this year's closing weekend was the simple fact the clubs weren't as badly packed as in the last two or three years. don't think it wasn't busy though, all the parties were very well frequented, but it never got to such a level as we had gotten used to recently.
our weekend started on friday night with privilege closing and a drink at el ayoun's closing party beforehand. i am not the biggest fan of el ayoun as such, but it is a very nice venue and every now and then, they're having some decent parties. on friday the place was not busy at all when we arrived though (1:30ish) and the music was also not my cuppa tea, so we literally stayed just for a drink. over to privilege then, which was already buzzing with people. the thing i am most pleased about privi this season is that they finally updated the club substantially for this year. if you compare the club today to 2007/2008, they're as different as chalk and cheese. the sound system is finally really powerful and lives up to such a big venue (was always the major deficit there IMO). then they've spent a lot on lighting and visuals. especially the huge LED wall in the main room is a breathtaking feature. to me, privi's main room now is again a very attractive huge area for a big room production. apart of the main room, the privi guys have a done more to the club - the chill out beds in the garden (to the left of the main room), a decent bar area in the dome (a place that was simply ignored for a few years), then tables to sit, have a drink or a fag and enjoy the views towards ibiza town just next to where the restaurant used to be and now vista blue (privi's smallest room) is located. and last, but not least, of course the vista club (ex coco loco + la vaca). with parties such as el row, they had proved this summer there is indeed a great dancefloor for underground music and parties. i must admit i will always have a soft spot for privilege, because of its history and its past and also because the people involved show a lot of affection for what they do and i do think now they're really on their right way. but back to the closing party. even though lady gaga did not happen in the end (and yes, they had booked her), it was really busy everywhere. the main room was home to the supermartxé crew where the biggest hits and a lot of mashups were played. if you've never been to supermartxé before, then i strongly advise you to plan it in next year. the music is one thing, but the whole show and stage production is definitely the best i've seen on the whole island this summer, period. then over to vista club, where man of the season solomun had just started his set and more and more people arrived to catch him. we played it very safe that night and only stayed for a few hours at privilege, so we missed digweed, the sunrise and the early morning feeling in vista club, but others of our team of course stayed, so check the
official review.
back home for a few hours of sleep and a very nice late lunch at hostal talamanca in preparation of the madness to come on saturday afternoon.
then we made our way to ushuaïa for its closing party. we arrived just before it got dark and again didn't stay for the whole night, i think we left around 1am. but still, a few lovely hours in a perfectly busy ushuaïa with reboot, solomun (of course) and then luciano. i wish they'd have been a bit more creative with their closing party line up, but constancy also does the trick. luciano's intro with the choir singing live was a goosebump moment! more about ushuaïa closing in our
review. already curious to see what parties will be happening at ushuaïa next year!
another very few hours of sleep and then my alarm clock rang at 5:30am on sunday morning. breakfast, shower and then a taxi to amnesia for their closing party. arrived short after 7:30am and danny tenaglia was already playing. musically, he built a nice bridge between the matinée sound that had been played before him and the tech house and techno fest that would follow after him. obviously also a few classics like "music is the answer" were dropped. i was extremely happy amnesia closing this year wasn't as unbearably busy as the two or three years before. yes of course it was busy, but perfectly busy with a bit of room to dance and a great crowd. mar-t came on after danny t and steered into techier stuff (but also mixed in michel cleis' mir a nero at some point to brighten things up). by then also most of our friends had arrived and the party kicked fully into gear. maetrik was on after mar-t and he was one of the highlights of the fiesta for me. simply great music. also steve lawler did a great job and then it was marco carola who took over. hmmm...i have a bit of a split opinion about that guy. technically, he's a great DJ, there is no doubt about this. but i've heard him a few times this year and sometimes, his sets unfortunately just bore me because there is sooo little variation within the sounds. another point is that he's not showing any affection when playing, no interaction with the crowd or anything. he of course seems very concentrated in doing what he does, but the combination of his sound sometimes being very the same for what seems hours and his "non-activity" behind the decks just bore me at times. and even though his set wasn't bad, it was how i felt for the first three hours of his set (2-5pm). the last hour although was a completely different story. i don't know any of the track IDs, but the sound he played between 5 and 6pm (when amnesia closing finished) was off the hook and people went for it. overall, not the best amnesia closing i've ever been to, but you know amnesia closing party will always be my favourite day of the year! and i'll happily get up very early next year again
here's our review!
after amnesia, got a taxi very quickly, drove home for the compulsory pit stop (consisting of a shower, fresh clothes and dinner) and then made our way to space. we decided we'll give the amnesia/music on afterparty at la plage as well as sankeys' secret party a miss and concentrate on space this year. by 10pm we were in and stayed on the car park until it closed, so we got the last hour of dubfire b2b carlo lio and the whole of coxy's set. and as always, the car park was a big reunion of friends, season workers saying goodbye and some forum people as well of course (hello sweet sensation and pauly)! after the car park had closed we escaped the masses and went to el salon for a while and a few drinks. unfortunately missed matador's live gig in the discoteca, but were back for a bit of hawtin and then switched between discoteca and terraza where radio slave and later nick curly were playing. didn't stay at space till the end (because had other plans) and left at 7am. official review
here!
back home for another pitstop (shower, fresh clothes, breakfast) and then off to ushuaïa for the cadenza closing afterparty. when we arrived (short before noon time), luciano had already played his set and it was lee van dowski and andrea oliva (and then again LVD) playing. especially andrea oliva played a really great set. and doing the afterparty in the beach club part of ushuaïa (just behind the paddling pool) and not on the main stage/dancefloor was a great idea - this location is a pretty damn perfect place for an afterparty! loads of cool people around, dancing in the sunshine and a lot of great tunes. that afterparty went on until about 4:30pm and was honestly one of the highlights of this year's closing weekend!
back home for one last pitstop (shower, dinner and fresh clothes i think) and then off to dc-10 for its closing. arrived there at 8pm and got straight in. also dc-10 got never as unbearably busy as the last few years. it was very busy, but always manageable. we got a bit of dubfire in the main room (which, contradictory to other opinions on here, was too hard for that time of the day and mis-placed in the running order IMO) and then dixon (who played a superb set, but right in between dubfire and marcel dettmann and ben klock in the main room? - that's just a weird running order!). then we got a bit of seth troxler in the garden and also a lot of squillace's and tanzmann's set, who played the last slot in the garden and only closed at 4 or 4:30am-ish instead of 2am (although the volume went remarkably down at around 2am, but it was still loud enough). then made our way into the main room again and enjoyed damian lazarus' closing set, he played a blinder of a set and closed at 7am. penultimate track was the original version (not the holden remix) of one of my alltime favourites - nathan fake's "the sky was pink". with dc-10 not being ridiculously rammed it was very much enjoyable!
back home after that and finally to bed.
spent tuesday in bed and recovering at home - didn't make it neither to the dc-10 afterhour at sands nor sankeys' closing party part 1.
today already feeling much better and getting ready now to hit sankeys' closing party part 2 in an hour or so (official review to follow of course)
extremely great closing party weekend, with super quality people and just the perfect amount of clubbers around everywhere!!!
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