VIP culture

“The VIP side of this island has fast-tracked beyond anybody’s belief, really,” Ben Turner put to Vath in the keynote one-on-one. “What’s your feeling now about how the island has been taken down this path in such a big way?”

Not surprisingly, considering Vath’s old-school love of unity on the dancefloor, the veteran had some opinions about how the VIP culture is out of step with what draws people to nightclubs in the first place.

“When we started, our VIP was always empty,” he said. “There was no VIP. The first three or four years, there was maybe one or two tables, so it was there for people who enjoyed a bottle of champagne. That’s fair enough, why not? But then after all these years, and the success of Ibiza and club music here, we could see more and more VIPs.

“But who is really important? The VIPs are coming because they have money, and they’re booking big tables. For me, the party is the dancefloor. And my music, it’s for the dancefloor. I remember Pacha in the ‘80s, and I can see after all these years the VIP section growing and growing and the dancefloor shrinking. I was wondering, is this really the right direction?”
 
Dirk Bigler said:
Sorry, but every response you make further reinforces to me that you just don't get it. To help me respond and help to build a picture, please share your musical genre and DJ tastes. Where do you go in Ibiza? What would be your perfect night?
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That's incredibly pompous and arrogant and AGAIN you've totally ignored EVERY point i've made. I usually like a lot of your posts and they give me a good laugh but on this subject you aren't coming across very well and you're a bit boring tbh.

Right i'm going to make it really simple for you and do a bit of quoting...

You - Personally I hate the whole VIP thing and think it is absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with the original ethos of Ibiza and spoils the atmosphere in clubs. It also attracts completely the wrong type of people

Unbelievably arrogant and your 3rd sentence completely contradicts the one before it

Me - I'm not really bothered what other people do in clubs as i'm usually having fun myself. I know it's a bugbear of people but i don't see, if your preference is to be in the moshpit with other likeminded people, that someone sitting upstairs drinking from a bottle of vodka that they have paid for, spoils your own enjoyment.

Point 1 ignored ^^^^^^

Me -My idea of hell is to go to a rammed Music On/Enter (not my kind of thing at all) a packed Pacha for Guetta or an equally horrific "underground night" (DULL DULL DULL) or ANYTHING in Sankeys (dump) so i completely avoid those places and the nights with music i won't like. I certainly wouldn't go to Pacha, Amnesia or Ushuaia and tut at the people in the VIP area because they were "ruining" my night.

Point 2 ignored ^^^^^^

Me - Most people want to get loaded on their poison of choice, have a boogie in the best clubs in the world, a laugh with their mates and take some photographic memories home with them and if other people enjoying themselves (within reason) affects your night negatively, then i would suggest you weren't having much fun in the first place.

Point 3 ignored ^^^^^^


You - VIP culture has killed the atmosphere in clubs, this has a negative impact on what I used to experience and what I now experience. Why would you choose to go to a club to sit? That isn't what it is about at all.

I'm guessing while you are looking around scowling at the VIP area you can't see the thousands of people around you dancing? :)

You - I don't think you are quite getting it. As Carl Cox said in his interview ' Everyone used to be together when they went out and on the same dancefloor' Everyone also used to go to dance and create an atmosphere, the number of 'tourists' who now go to clubs and just stand or walk about kills it, attracted by the VIP culture and not the music.

Me - I read the interview by Cox and although again I agreed with some of what he said I think it's a bit rich him complaining about the whole VIP thing considering he was one of the first DJs to start demanding 6 figures, private jets and/or helicopter flights for a 3 hour set. I'm betting that he earns similar if not more than Guetta/Avicci/Axwell etc do for their seasons in Ibiza

Point 4 ignored ^^^^^^^

Me - You must be in your 40s now so of course clubbing in Ibiza has changed beyond all recognition from when you started doing it. There were a lot of social and society changes that happened when you were in your twenties that people 20 or 30 years older than you hated and couldn't understand, it didn't make them wrong and your generation right though did it? The whole VIP thing may have ruined your clubbing experience so there is a REALLY simple solution... Either don't go clubbing or go and don't enter the VIP area lol


Point 5 ignored ^^^^^


Anyway it looks like we are going to be going around in circles and will never agree on this.

I recently had a family holiday in Ibiza and spent the days chilling out and doing things with the kids, made it to Amnesia for Cream once and Ushuaia for Armin once... not a VIP table in sight for me

In 12 days i'm arriving in Ibiza for 5 days of carnage starting with Coxy @ Space on the Tuesday, La Famila @ Ushuaia on the Wednesday evening then a decent nights sleep before an Armin and Cream double header on the Thursday. Friday night is possibly Glitterbox @ Space and then finally Ants on Saturday evening before we fly home early Sunday.

Does that lineup meet your approval or shall i cancel them all and head to some supercool intimate little party in a shipping container on a beach, attended by 9 hippies and a dozen people who are just standing around moaning things aren't as good as they used to be ? :D
 
VIP has always been a part of nightlife in Ibiza. The main difference is, that 20 years ago one did not need magnum bottles with fireworks on it to make sure, that defenitely everyone sees you doing VIP.

The real Vibe-Killer, besides Smartphones, is buying Club tickets weeks in advance and having planned your stay on the island down to the last minute.
 
Dirk Bigler said:
“The VIP side of this island has fast-tracked beyond anybody’s belief, really,” Ben Turner put to Vath in the keynote one-on-one. “What’s your feeling now about how the island has been taken down this path in such a big way?”

Not surprisingly, considering Vath’s old-school love of unity on the dancefloor, the veteran had some opinions about how the VIP culture is out of step with what draws people to nightclubs in the first place.

“When we started, our VIP was always empty,” he said. “There was no VIP. The first three or four years, there was maybe one or two tables, so it was there for people who enjoyed a bottle of champagne. That’s fair enough, why not? But then after all these years, and the success of Ibiza and club music here, we could see more and more VIPs.

“But who is really important? The VIPs are coming because they have money, and they’re booking big tables. For me, the party is the dancefloor. And my music, it’s for the dancefloor. I remember Pacha in the ‘80s, and I can see after all these years the VIP section growing and growing and the dancefloor shrinking. I was wondering, is this really the right direction?”
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I actually agree with the sentiments behind that but unlike you i think that there is room for both and that commercial interests ALWAYS become before misty eyed sentiment.

I'm old enough to remember meeting at Heston service station on the M4 and driving out into the middle of nowhere to party in a field all night. I also remember being in a warehouse in Luton when the police raided it and shut it down. The whole "rave" thing changed when people realised that big money could be made (also the Criminal Justice Act contributed obviously) and eventually they were moved inside to safe venues and big promoters made a killing. Do i think that was an improvement on the free parties in fields? Nope not particularly but in the capitalist West it's what happens in every walk of life and nothing will change it
 
DelMarSunset said:
That's incredibly pompous and arrogant and AGAIN you've totally ignored EVERY point i've made. I usually like a lot of your posts and they give me a good laugh but on this subject you aren't coming across very well and you're a bit boring tbh.

Right i'm going to make it really simple for you and do a bit of quoting...

You - Personally I hate the whole VIP thing and think it is absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with the original ethos of Ibiza and spoils the atmosphere in clubs. It also attracts completely the wrong type of people

Unbelievably arrogant and your 3rd sentence completely contradicts the one before it

Me - I'm not really bothered what other people do in clubs as i'm usually having fun myself. I know it's a bugbear of people but i don't see, if your preference is to be in the moshpit with other likeminded people, that someone sitting upstairs drinking from a bottle of vodka that they have paid for, spoils your own enjoyment.

Point 1 ignored ^^^^^^

Me -My idea of hell is to go to a rammed Music On/Enter (not my kind of thing at all) a packed Pacha for Guetta or an equally horrific "underground night" (DULL DULL DULL) or ANYTHING in Sankeys (dump) so i completely avoid those places and the nights with music i won't like. I certainly wouldn't go to Pacha, Amnesia or Ushuaia and tut at the people in the VIP area because they were "ruining" my night.

Point 2 ignored ^^^^^^

Me - Most people want to get loaded on their poison of choice, have a boogie in the best clubs in the world, a laugh with their mates and take some photographic memories home with them and if other people enjoying themselves (within reason) affects your night negatively, then i would suggest you weren't having much fun in the first place.

Point 3 ignored ^^^^^^


You - VIP culture has killed the atmosphere in clubs, this has a negative impact on what I used to experience and what I now experience. Why would you choose to go to a club to sit? That isn't what it is about at all.

I'm guessing while you are looking around scowling at the VIP area you can't see the thousands of people around you dancing? :)

You - I don't think you are quite getting it. As Carl Cox said in his interview ' Everyone used to be together when they went out and on the same dancefloor' Everyone also used to go to dance and create an atmosphere, the number of 'tourists' who now go to clubs and just stand or walk about kills it, attracted by the VIP culture and not the music.

Me - I read the interview by Cox and although again I agreed with some of what he said I think it's a bit rich him complaining about the whole VIP thing considering he was one of the first DJs to start demanding 6 figures, private jets and/or helicopter flights for a 3 hour set. I'm betting that he earns similar if not more than Guetta/Avicci/Axwell etc do for their seasons in Ibiza

Point 4 ignored ^^^^^^^

Me - You must be in your 40s now so of course clubbing in Ibiza has changed beyond all recognition from when you started doing it. There were a lot of social and society changes that happened when you were in your twenties that people 20 or 30 years older than you hated and couldn't understand, it didn't make them wrong and your generation right though did it? The whole VIP thing may have ruined your clubbing experience so there is a REALLY simple solution... Either don't go clubbing or go and don't enter the VIP area lol


Point 5 ignored ^^^^^


Anyway it looks like we are going to be going around in circles and will never agree on this.

I recently had a family holiday in Ibiza and spent the days chilling out and doing things with the kids, made it to Amnesia for Cream once and Ushuaia for Armin once... not a VIP table in sight for me

In 12 days i'm arriving in Ibiza for 5 days of carnage starting with Coxy @ Space on the Tuesday, La Famila @ Ushuaia on the Wednesday evening then a decent nights sleep before an Armin and Cream double header on the Thursday. Friday night is possibly Glitterbox @ Space and then finally Ants on Saturday evening before we fly home early Sunday.

Does that lineup meet your approval or shall i cancel them all and head to some supercool intimate little party in a shipping container on a beach, attended by 9 hippies and a dozen people who are just standing around moaning things aren't as good as they used to be ? :D
Click to expand...

I have a sneaky suspicion that you still don't get it, I could be wrong?
 
Namaste said:
VIP has always been a part of nightlife in Ibiza. The main difference is, that 20 years ago one did not need magnum bottles with fireworks on it to make sure, that defenitely everyone sees you doing VIP.
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I've seen some twunts doing it in daylight on Cala Bassa beach so it's not only part of the nightlife these days:(
 
Think all these nights in VIP are starting to take there toll, you may want to siphon off some of that money for anger management courses. How on earth can you let yourself get so aggrieved posting on a forum in response to someone you don't even know? Maybe best to take a rest today and then come back when you have had time to reflect?
 
Dirk Bigler said:
Think all these nights in VIP are starting to take there toll, you may want to siphon off some of that money for anger management courses. How on earth can you let yourself get so aggrieved posting on a forum in response to someone you don't even know? Maybe best to take a rest today and then come back when you have had time to reflect?
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Haha ok mate no worries. I'm not aggrieved at all i thought we were having a conversation? Perhaps if you think that anything i've written on this thread calls for anger management courses, then the internet isn't for you lol You started a thread asking for opinions and have managed to ignore and deflect any point made to you by repeating that anyone who doesn't agree with you "doesn't get it"

You've made yourself look really stupid here which is a shame
 
OK, if you think your responses have been conducive to positive debate and chat on a forum, I will let you carry on as you are. I was only trying to help, just surprised that someone can get themselves so worked up about something they quite clearly don't get?
 
Dirk Bigler said:
OK, if you think your responses have been conducive to positive debate and chat on a forum, I will let you carry on as you are. I was only trying to help, just surprised that someone can get themselves so worked up about something they quite clearly don't get?
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There you go again lol At least you're consistent, i will give you that
 
There can't be much steam left in the commercial EDM explosion. A new "in-thing" is surely only a year or 2 around the corner.

Just ride it out, Dirk. The VIPs will begin to decline as the next fad takes hold. I'm sure this element won't ever completely disappear from Ibiza's clubs, but at the moment it is riding the wave of the popularity of this music in the American market.
 
I'm ambivalent about it really, although do appreciate both sides of argument.

Without the VIP set spending loads of money compared to the minions on a bit of water and extras, how can clubs pay the massive fees the djs charge? Maybe if they only charged a few €k then the need for large VIP areas would be less.

Maybe what Dirk is trying to get to is it becoming more about how you are seen, wearing and with (ie TOWIE) than just enjoying the music and been sociable. I've not noticed that but only been going for 4 years.

People I chat with in the clubs, vip or otherwise, still seem to have the same ibiza attitude in that no one gives a shit who you are, what you are or that; so long as you're decent. Hopefully that will continue.
 
craig72 said:
More importantly am I the only one who thinks carl cox plays shite music.
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I'm more progressive/trance/edm but got to techno nights also (like to mix it up lol). I did his closing last year at space where I left at 8am with it still going on. My take is its not bad but he did seem to end up playing the same 10-15 minute loops.

Now this could be because I was completely sober by 4am and so not "in the zone", or because I'm more into progressive stuff and like change.
 
very entertaining read.

shall we place bets on how many more years before VIP tables / zones take over BPM festival then?
 
stivi said:
very entertaining read.

shall we place bets on how many more years before VIP tables / zones take over BPM festival then?
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No need to bet or wait for a couple of years.

Bpm 2014:
VIP Table / BeachBed Bookings
For any and all event table and/or beach-bed bookings, please visit our official BPM ticket and merchandise centre located @ Calle 28 and the Beach in Playa del Carmen open daily starting December 26th, 2012 from 12pm to 8pm. One of our BPM team members will be happy to help guide you with the best option for your group and your budget.

For more information or to book your VIP TABLE in advance, please contact:

VIPSERVICES@thebpmfestival.com
http://2014.thebpmfestival.com/vip-tables/
 
Its "VIP culture" that I don't like, not necessarily "VIP"

I think the term VIP is unfortunate as it gives the impression of "I'm considerably richer that you"

I remember in the late 80's when I first started clubbing in my local town. There was VIP in one of the clubs, a roped off seating area. No fecker went in it, it was only really for someone who knew the owner, friend of a friend etc...a place to sit down more than anything.

This surely was what it used to be like in Ibiza? But, they switched onto it and made money. Lets face it, sell 3 or 4 bottles of water to a pilled up clubber or a bottle of Grey Goose (Init) to someone who's got some spare readies. Its a no brainer, plus the DJs are demanding far too much money

When did it all start?

Maybe this ? - There has been a shift in the amount of disposable income available. I first went in 1994, I had bought my own house 12 months before and was Bernie Flint. Youngsters aren't buying property anymore, they are cash rich. They want to spray Champers over their mates at OBC, not pay a mortgage. Then post it on the web for all to see, I used to ring my Mum once midweek after queuing at a payphone to let her know I was still alive. Today, its all about how you look, but this bubble will eventually burst.

Maybe this? - The explosion of UK garage in the late 90's, Champagne and Brandy.

Maybe this?- EDM money making machine in America.

However, if you are a bit older and want somewhere to rest your legs in a busy club for 10/15 and you can afford it, then good luck to you. I try not to let it ruin my night.

What does really get my back up is this - I want a table at Mambo (only an example) at the front for sunset. A little bar on the edge of the sea and they want 90 euros min spend for the privilege. That's the greed that "VIP" breeds.
 
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