Dates you were there: Thursday 25th May - Saturday 3rd June
Where you stayed (resort/hotel): Jet Arlanza for the first week and then Apartments Club La Sirena. Arlanza has gone downhill a little, but overall still excellent value for money. This was our first time staying at La Sirena and it was very good.
Club nights visited: Music On, Hi Opening, Circo Loco.
Music On - For me this was easily the best Music On I have ever attended. The crowd levels were perfectly busy throughout the night, which most will know is extremely rare for this event. Also the crowd itself was very mixed, but there was a very nice atmosphere. Musically again very good - I was impressed with Paco Osuna's warm up and Carola's set was excellent!
Hi Opening - We arrived just after 6AM. The club was still busy, but it was still OK to navigate around the club from room to room. We caught the end of Nic Fanciulli's set who was OK. We then moved over to the theater for Luciano who was excellent, although ended slightly early (10AM!?). We then finshed off with Apollonia in the club who were solid.
Strangely, I found myself enjoying the room I felt I would dislike, and disliking the room I thought I would like. The theater (despite the VIP pods) is pretty impressive. The lighting and visuals inside are excellent and from where I was standing (front left of DJ booth) the sound quality was good. From where I was standing, where the VIP pods were not in your eye-line its actually not too bad. This was for me the only room that had any atmosphere throughout the night.
The club room was the room that really disappointed me. As previously mentioned I just felt that the warmth from the old soundsystem was gone. Behind Amnesia terrace this was my favorite room on the island, and I really felt that the heart and soul had been ripped out. There was zero atmosphere in this room throughout the night - despite there being some decent music playing. It just felt too clean, polished and poncey. I'm sure this is partly down to me comparing it with the old terraza, but as it only closed a few months ago its hard not to be drawn into comparing thw two.
I only very briefly visited Wild Corner and I quite liked it - but I would need to attend again to give a proper opinion.
Overall some excellent music and the club does have some potential - but I think it is going to take some time before people can begin to accept it for what it is.
Circo Loco - We arrived around 19:30 where D'julz was in fine form in the garden. Tania Vulcano then followed and again played a solid set. However, when Gerd Janson took over things really went up a notch. In my years of attending DC10, this set was the single best I have ever heard. Transitioning between disco, house and techno he had us in the palm of his hand. It reminded me once again just how incredible DC10 garden is on a good night. However, as soon as the music in the garden finished things really took a downhill slide.
Rampa vs &ME on the terrace sounded very disjointed to me. Granted I was only in the room for 20 minutes; but from what I heard it was really poor. Similar with Satoshi Tomile in the main room just sounded awful. With no music in the garden, for the first time ever at DC10 I was genuinely left with no good music to listen too - and this is from someone who LOVES DC10 and Circo Loco. I've never had a single bad experience there before so this was quite disappointing.
Best night: Circo Loco (in the garden)
Worst night: Circo Loco (once the garden had shut)
Best bar: As much as they are not bars as such, Sa Trinxa and Sunset Ashram are two fantastic places for a drink in the day.
Best place to eat: Almost too many to mention on this trip - but Can Pilot, La Bodega, Tapas (San Antonio) and Fish Shack were the standouts.
Money spent: Flights, Hotel and Spending around £1500
Biggest regret: Due to some unfortunate circumstances around guestlist not attending Cocoon opening
Going back?: ... oh yes! Saturday 30th September - Wednesday 4th October for CLOSINGS
Top tip: Ensure you are 100% prepared for your night before leaving the apartment (guestlist, cash, etc
)
Before we arrived on the island we had made plans to spend Tuesday 30th at the Atzaro Spa for my sister in laws birthday, so we agreed that on Monday we would call it a night at a reasonable time (around 5AM).
Unfortunatley, as we went to leave Circo Loco around 01:30, an old friend of mine who usually gets us Amnesia guestlist (Cocoon was €25 before 2AM) let me know that guestlist for Cocoon opening was not possible on the night. That being the case tickets would then have been €50 and some of our friends simply didn't have the cash on them for the rest of the night (ticket, taxi, water etc). By the time we got back to our apartment to grab all required bits and debated whether it was worth us paying €50 for 3 hours of Cocoon, was just lost our momentum and ended up getting bent up in a local bar instead.
... so I guess my tip is to not let anything come between you and the events you want to attend, even family