Jason Bull, owner of the Hotel Es Vive in Ibiza Town, is up to his neck in rubble. It’s his hotel’s 10th anniversary this summer and he’s currently overseeing a major revamp which he hopes will ensure another toast-worthy decade. Bull’s description, over the phone, of the construction-chaos around him neatly epitomises the way in which Ibiza’s wider leisure landscape is currently changing.
“In truth, it’s been changing for a while” Bull muses. “Put it this way, when we first opened Es Vive 10 years ago there were no other hotels around; nothing specifically catering for clubbing tourists. Today, there are good hotels all over Ibiza Town – the Ibiza Gran, Ocean Drive…. It’s a very competitive arena these days, and we have to constantly evolve to be successful.”
Hence the army of builders currently crawling all over Es Vive; the new-look hotel is expected to open on May 18 with a whole heap of new features including, not least, soundproofed walls and doors, and double-glazed windows. “It’s for those of our guests who want a good night’s sleep; we have a club and bar downstairs, after all,” Bull explains.
Hotel Es Vive
But what exactly is he saying? That his guests aren’t going out night after night? “Absolutely” he replies. “I think the Ibiza crowd has changed… is still changing. The younger generation of clubbers is still coming through but I think a lot of the Ibiza regulars are those that first visited in 1989 or the early 90s. They had no money back then and were happy to crash in a 2-star hostel somewhere, it was all about the parties. They’re a lot older now, they have families, incomes and expectations; they’re a lot more discerning about everything. That’s where a hotel like ours fits in.”
It’s also where Ibiza Rocks’ latest venture fits in. The infamous ‘live’ party promoter, which successfully opened an Ibiza Rocks Hotel in San Antonio three years ago, will be launching a luxury 25-room boutique hotel late next month. Targeting older but suitably ‘clued-up’ clientele, Ibiza Rocks House is a stylish restoration of San Antonio’s legendary Pikes Hotel – the scene of Wham’s almost now historic Club Tropicana pop video and dozens of celebrity-fuelled parties hosted by 80s icons including Grace Jones and Freddie Mercury.
“Over the past five years Ibiza has successfully PR’d itself” Shane Murray, Ibiza Rocks promoter, says. “It has been able to demonstrate that it’s accessible to young and old people alike. A few years back the only media on the island were the dance music mags, and some of the tabloids; last summer, the island was overrun by stringers for high-end titles like Grazia and Vogue. People were talking about Ibiza fashion, about glamorous parties; it’ll be the same again in a couple of months.”
One could argue, justifiably, that the addition of ska-pop stalwarts Madness to the line-up of gigs at the Ibiza Rocks Hotel this summer, and the appearance of Duran Duran at Amnesia in August (part of a new 10-show collaboration between the super-club and MTV), reflects Ibiza’s changing clubland demographic.
“But they’re not just novelty acts for the older generation of clubbers” Murray stresses. “I’m sure they will resonate with those people but in the case of Madness we’re totally aware of their influence on modern acts like Lily Allen for example. Madness are playing major UK festivals this year; they’re totally relevant.”
Today’s young iPod generation has much to get excited about. Music’s increasingly digital frontiers have made a whole heap of new and wide-ranging music accessible to all. Those frontiers, too, represent a blurring of the line between club act and guitar band.
“Effectively, we’ve brought live music to the White Isle” Murray suggests. “When we started out here at Manumission it was about kicking back at repetitive dance music, but now the iPod generation is open to all sorts of hybrid ideas and that’s allowed us to do so much more with our live gigs. We’re bringing that festival feeling from England, where the lines are similarly blurred.”
Indeed, any UK music festival worth its salt these days mixes indie with electronic. Aping that trend, Ibiza Rocks promises performances from Plan B, Fatboy Slim, Biffy Clyro and, yes, Madness. But even just the electronic side of things is twisting and turning into delightful new shapes. As such, the range of dancefloor sounds emanating from Ibiza’s key clubs this season will be refreshingly broad.
Amnesia is balancing its mainstream commitments to MTV over the coming weeks with nights hosted (once again) by revered underground label Cocoon and its uncompromising leader Sven Vath. Meanwhile, Circo Loco’s opening party (May 30 at DC-10) promises the super soulful house of Kerri Chandler alongside leftfield beats from BPitch boss Ellen Allien, punchy French jackin’ via Dan Ghenacia and minimal tech courtesy of Clive Henry.
Pacha Ibiza’s opening run will splice the bombastic likes of Pete Tong, Erick Morillo and Bob Sinclar with deeper thrusts from Luciano’s Cadenza label and dates from slick Def Mixers including David Morales and Frankie Knuckles. Space has confirmed residencies for Carl Cox, Armin Van Buuren and Gareth Emery; and the International Music Summit (IMS), a well established May pre-cursor to Ibiza’s annual sunshine frolics, will variously involve Tong, Dubfire, 2manydjs, Sasha, Jamie Jones and Paul Kalkbrenner.
Bob Sinclar
“We’re really excited about the coming summer” Nick Ferguson, Cream Ibiza promoter, comments. “We’ve seen mass change over the past decade and we now need to attract everyone from the trance obsessed teenager on a lads’ holiday to the older house and techno heads. It’s not enough, today, to have one major name; visitors – and they’re coming from a number of countries - want a range of music all under one roof. We think Cream has a great line-up this year what with heavyweights like Paul Van Dyk, Calvin Harris, Laidback Luke and Eddie Halliwell.”
If the ongoing growth of White Isle clubland was ever in doubt then British Airway’s recent decision to up the number of weekly flights it sends to Ibiza (including five flights from London’s City Airport, as of May) is surely another firm indicator otherwise. Many European airports are making similar moves.
Bull is more than optimistic about the future: “There’s a lot of opportunity; the growth of the leisure industry here in recent years has been pretty staggering and, ultimately, I think the local authorities realise that and realise what we can contribute to the local economy, and to people’s entertainment. Ibizan nightlife, and the industry around it, has really matured; there’s so much more for people to do; I think it’s going to be a fantastic summer.”
According to Bull, an Ibizan club experience is no longer confined just to evenings and early mornings either: “What I’ve really noticed is how our guests, some with families now, will get a bit rock ‘n’ roll around the pool during the day; we have the music on for them and all that…. Then they’ll head out to dinner and maybe a club until 1 or 2 before coming back to the hotel - nothing too late… My friends in the business have noticed the same thing; Ibiza doesn’t have to be a nocturnal thing any more.”
The Defected In The House Opening Party is at Pacha on 4th June - click for full season listings
