And so, after months of speculation, gossip, anticipation, rumours and announcements, the 2010 Ibiza season has finally swung into action with all the unstoppable momentum of a giant rhino on speed. But what with a global recession still tightly squeezing the purses of those would-be travellers to the clubbers Mecca of the White Isle, what would those telling first parties be like? Happily for those worried about the potential thinning of the crowds I can report that I haven't seen the island this busy and this ready to party in a long, long time…
The infamous Opening parties of the Ibiza season act a barometer by which you can usually predict how the rest of the season will pan out; if busy it usually bodes well for the months ahead, if not, the club and bar owners start to sweat a little in the Ibizan heat at the prospect of trying to convince a less that healthy summer population that theirs is the establishment in which they want dance the night away. Having seen footage from the opening of David Guetta's F*** Me I'm Famous party I was optimistic; it was ridiculously busy, although Guetta is not such a pop-machine that this was hardly surprising.
The Saturday night Defected party started - as always - with a trip to Mambo to catch the end of a devastatingly beautiful sunset and to get us in the frame of mind you need to be in with the prospect of 7 hours dancing ahead of us. In the car on the way we'd been listening to the Defected In The House Radio Show, for which Simon Dunmore had delivered a special hour-long mix, so we were already tapping our feet in anticipation by the time we arrived on the shoreline of San Antonio. Both Bob Sinclar and Riva Starr - both of whom were playing later at Pacha - were also spinning some tunes for the pre-party, and by the time Bob hit the decks there was already a sizeable crowd outside. Bob started by playing a load of tracks from his Made in Jamaica remix album - with a few Bob Marley originals thrown in for good measure - before upping the pace as the darkness descended with some melodic house numbers. Riva took over and got heads nodding and fingers tapping, but after a quick bite to eat and hooking up an interview with Bob it was time to accompany Simon Dunmore to Pacha in time to prepare for the opening set of the party.
Dunmore kicked off the season beautifully, going back to his disco and soul roots and keeping the tempo teasingly low. Timmy Thomas, Imagination, Tom Tom Club, and Kool & The Gang all featured in the first hour before the 4/4 beat took control; a truly exceptional way to start the season. The club filled up faster than I've ever seen it before, and by about 1am it was genuinely busy with most people opting to head straight for the dancefloor - pretty impressive when you consider that most people in Ibiza don't usually hit the clubs until well after 2. The entire place was jumping by the time Dunmore started rolling out the big guns; ATFC's Bring the Beat Back got an absolutely massive reaction from the packed dancefloor with cheers and whoops of appreciation before the breakdown and a sea of raised arms and pumping fists after. Later, Simon told me that he wanted to stay on for another hour at least, and who could blame him? The reaction he was getting was incredible, but he had to step aside and make way for the night's headliner, Bob Sinclar.
By the time Bob slipped his first CD into the brand new Pioneer 2000's the place was throbbing and the dancefloor was insanely busy - just moving around the main room was proving difficult and time consuming. His set was an eclectic mix of straight up dancefloor tracks like his own 'Russian March', some cheeky re-edits of fellow producers' work including an excellent Junior Jack Da Hype re-working and some quick-fire indie mash ups, all of which kept the place jumping for the duration of his three hour set.
Coming on at 5am, Riva Starr had a tough act to follow, and though the crowd inevitably thinned slightly after the great Frenchman left, the vast majority of people stayed and were treated to some no-nonsense tech thumpers from the prolific Italian. His own remix of Dennis Ferrer's ubiquitous Hey Hey (available on iTunes from Monday) went down a storm, and the final half an hour or so showed how creative a DJ he is, expertly teasing with the horns from The Bucketheads The Bomb before dropping Jaydee's Plastic Dreams for an incredibly satisfying finale.
And so, right on cue at a minute before 7am Riva killed the sound and sent hundreds of weary but satisfied clubbers on their way. The journey back to the villa accompanied by the first golden beams of sunlight streaking across the cloudless sky was a subdued yet happy one, with everyone needing to catch as much sleep as possible before checking out the much talked about opening party of Luciano's Cadenza the following day. First test passed with flying colours; now here's to the rest of the season.
Defected In The House is every Saturday at Pacha throughout the season - check out the full listings here.
Defected In The House Ibiza '10 is out now.
