Cream are back in Ibiza at Amnesia for 2010.

The opening party is Thursday 17th June and closing party is Thursday 30th September.

Winner of Best Ibiza Night at the DJ Awards 2008, Sven Vath’s techno-plus extravaganza Cocoon opens 15th June at Amnesia, and this year will mark their ten year anniversary here.

The Ibiza operation is run by Johannes Goller, a man whose life changed dramatically ten years ago when he decided to abandon his family’s original plans for him to take over their butchers company. He’d already got all the requisite diplomas and was all set to follow in his father’s footsteps before having a radical change of heart after seeing Sven Vath, whose music he already loved, perform here at Space. To cut a long story short, for now, the rest is history.

Johannes works during winter in the offices of the Cocoon family above Frankfurt’s Cocoon club and restaurant. He arrived yesterday for the International Music Summit, and the summer season which sees months of winter planning play out week after week at Amnesia, with wall-to-wall crowds on each occasion. Cocoon has traditionally been the home of the most eclectic club crowd on the island, and is famed for its international melange of both performers and aficionados. After his participation in the brands panel this afternoon at the IMS, I sat Johannes down for a forthcoming interview in Ibiza NOW, during which we touched on the highlights for the coming season…

“We’re ten years on the island, and will be celebrating this every single Monday, so we’ll have special guests all throughout the season with lots of new artists as well as old faces. It’s going to be a very interesting line-up. If there’s anyone on the island bringing new artists, then it’s Cocoon.”

These faces include Guillaume Coutu Dumont, Nick Curly, Cassy, Raresh, Marcus Fix, Zip, Livio and Roby, Radio Slave, Magda, Gaiser, Joris Voorn, Marco Carola, Dubfire, Josh Wink and Federico Molinari. The artists are often chosen by Sven, or by residents Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos and Loco Dice. “Ricardo played at an after-party in Chile, and he found this guy called Uhmo. And he called me when I was in India and said, “We have to invite him to Ibiza, I’ll pay the flights!” so he’ll be playing with Ricardo and Raresh this season.”

Cocoon have always had an open door rule for island residents, and that policy will continue this summer. “As long as you turn up with a Resident’s card you get in for free. There has always been this big connection between Cocoon and the island because of this.”

And for the opening night, June 15?

“On the opening night we have Sven and Chris Tietjen playing the main room, with Cassy and Ricardo on the terrace.”

Cocoon have always had a season’s theme, often with a futuristic bent. So what’s the theme for summer 2009?

“We thought about it. We had the photographers, the creative directors… and we thought you know what? Isn’t ten years with Cocoon Ibiza enough? Isn’t it enough to say hey we are on the island now for ten years, so let’s just stand still, look back and let’s see what we’ve done. We have nine different models, why don’t we put all of them in a pot and do a crazy visual mix of all the images and all the years. Let’s use all those pictures, let’s invite all the performers, let’s celebrate ten years of Cocoon. We have Dita Von Teese coming, we have Rose the snakewoman [Rosalind Bee, the famous contortionist], The Freaks from London – they’re all coming back. Roman from Alter Ego is coming for a DJ set… We’re going to try to make every Monday as special as possible…”

Helen Donlon
Full interview with Johannes Goller in next month’s Ibiza Now

Confirmed dates

After smashing it up at Ibiza Rocks in July Dizzee Rascal will be back on Ibiza for Manumission’s Coney Island Review at Amnesia on Friday 5th August 2008.

Never ones to shy away from a good old bump and grind, the folks behind Ibiza’s most flamboyant night out: MIKE & CLAIRE MANUMISSION and their very extended family thought it most appropriate that Britain’s Dizzee Rascal add the icing on the cake to the Manumission Masquerade Ball this Friday in Amnesia.

Now it’s Dizzee’s Showtime on the Manumission Terrace. Wear a mask and get ready for more mayhem at Amnesia, Ibiza. The Rascal will perform a 45 minute live show, starting at 02.30am.

The Soundtrack… will be lovingly provided not only Live & Direct from Dizzee Rascal, Newham Generals and Paco Fernandez but also by this fine team of hand picked music maestros: Lottie, Jon Carter, Fred Falke and Griff.

The Culture Fest… A heady combination of music, art, fashion, performance, dance, beauty, glamour and fabulousness, all brought together with pure Manumission passion.

The Show and its Cast… coming to life on the Manumission Terrace throughout the night, a spectacular stage show with a cast including Johnny Golden, Antonio Culebras, Polly Fey, The Manumission maidens and the Dynamite Hosts.

August in Ibiza means one thing: clubs, clubs, clubs. It’s the month of blazing sunshine, beautiful people and parties that roll into the wee hours of the morning.

It was also, this summer, the month everyone had been banking on to compensate for a rickety start to the season; the make-or-break weeks for the fortunes of everyone who relies on Ibiza’s brief tourist season
to see them through winter. “The rest of the summer you might make just about enough to pay the bills and have a few nights
out, but August is when you stack it up,” as one worker puts it.

Make no mistake, the Ibicenco economy is close-hitched to the success of its clubs. The Diario de Ibiza recently reported on a survey which showed nine out of 10 British tourists come to Ibiza specifically for the nightlife. So, how are we doing?

At Amnesia their highlight events are going strong. Cocoon’s Monday night party is pulling a huge international crowd, its
usual popularity given an extra boost by the closure of DC10. The price of their “friends & family” concession guest-list tickets has shot up from €20 to €30 so it’s a safe bet anyone involved in this techno powerhouse will be laughing all the way to the bank this autumn.

Thursday night’s ‘Cream’ party is perennially popular with the British market and despite the economic hardships they
are still pulling full houses on the strength of their heavy duty DJs like Paul Van Dyk, Sasha and Ferry Corstan. Also wooing the trance crowd is Armin’s Tuesday night ‘Armada’ with guests like Sharam from Deep Dish and Laidback Luke.

However, another Brit standby, ‘Manumission’ (Fridays) has struggled to cope with heavy competition from Madrileno night ‘SuperMartXe’ which has been filling Privilege to capacity thanks to a canny mix of competitive door-pricing and mind-blowing production.

It seems Privilege has realised that its strength lies in making the most of its vast space as the other big night is Tiesto’s ‘In Search Of Sunrise’ party every Monday. Eager kids (mostly British, Dutch and German) are happily shelling out €60 or more for a peek at Tijs’ staggering, rock’n'roll style audio-visual trance extravaganza.

Filling out
the roster of big hitters at Privilege are two nights of techno: ‘Meganite’ and ‘Monza’.

The former has found success with a mix of classic tough techno and live acts, while ‘Monza’ is making a strong showing with its Berlin-orientated line-ups (Magda, M.A.N.D.Y. and Guido Schneider among others).

It’s not all smiles though, as local
favourite ‘La Communidad’ – which moved to Saturdays at the World’s Biggest Club after losing its Friday nights at Space – flopped and was quickly replaced by a new night called ‘Soldiers’.

Space, having ruthlessly culled its promoter roster after losing half its opening hours to new laws has still sometimes struggled to fill its six rooms. ‘Carl Cox and Friends’ is having another fantastic season, and long-running gay night ‘La Troya’ (Wednesday) is still packing them in despite squabbles with authorities over their colourful parades and artwork.

Danny Tenaglia’s first Ibiza residency, ‘Be’ on Thursdays has wooed fans of classic house but faces tough competition from its glamorous opposite ‘F*** Me I’m Famous’, fronted by Cathy & David Guetta at Pacha. In any case, Space’s undisputed flagship is still ‘We Love Sundays’, which pulled crowds and column inches with the return of the Chemical Brothers to Ibiza for the first time in 14 years (for a reported six-figure fee).

Other island big spenders include Eden, which has been rewarded for splashing the cash on Pete Tong with his muchtalked-
about ‘Wonderland’ party on Fridays. Along with Brit faves like Groove Armada and Rob Marmot the night has brought the
likes of Tania Vulcano and Deadmau5 to San An for the first time.

Tuesday night’s ‘Koolwaters’ party has kept Eden jumping with a mix of breaks and electro. Night-by-night, Eden is probably the most eclectic club on the island with events for garage (Twice As Nice), hard house (Advanced Vs Tidy), house (Garlands Vs The Hacienda) and electronica (Mondo Loco). Though it is still easy to get free or reduced entry to most nights, a sure sign they’re working to pull in the punters, the club has maintained a good atmosphere and Judgement Sundays is still hugely popular with the San An crowd.

Also flying the flag for San An eclecticism, Es Paradis has a mix of classic and new nights. Its flagship ‘Fiesta del Agua’ has expanded to two nights a week (Thursdays and Saturdays) and is the biggest pull with local youngsters. Their ‘Bassline Vs Garage’ night angles to grab some of the urban crowd away from ‘Twice As Nice’ while ‘Clubland’ woos fans of commercial house and trance.

Possibly the most interesting night is Wednesday’s ‘Rogue DJs’ party which brings DJ sets from bands like Utah
Saints, The Subways and The Mystery Jets.

Meanwhile, the glamorous Ibiza Town clubs are still locked in a fierce rivalry. Louie Vega’s ‘Soul Heaven’ night at El Divino has taken the club back to pure house music with lots of live PAs and support from the likes of Erick Morillo (whose Wednesday night ‘Subliminal’ party at Pacha has been a bit quieter than previous seasons), while its busiest night remains Saturday’s ‘Hed Kandi’ party – a firm favourite of the stylish British crowd.

Competing
for their cut of the pie are ‘Fashion TV’ & ‘Miss Moneypenny’s’ on the Friday, Tuesday’s ‘Salvacion’ bash, house heavy hitters ‘Kinky Malinki vs Kidology’ (Thursday) and ‘Mn2S’ (Monday).

Minutes away is Pacha, which has stuck with a tried and tested line-up for summer 2008, beginning with Roger Sanchez’s ‘Release Yourself’ party on Monday (which started at El Divino, some years back). According to insiders the focus on traditional US house has given the club a long-in-the-tooth feel, with staples like ‘Def Mix’ (Saturday) and ‘Defected’ (Tuesday) relying too heavily on older acts.

Undoubtedly the most exciting night of the week is Friday’s ‘Pure Pacha’ which responded to Tong’s move to Eden by booking some of the biggest names in dance: Sander Kleinenberg, the Swedish House Mafia, Basement Jaxx and Faithless. The new acts have energised the night. “The atmosphere is brilliant and our guest-lists are full till September,” reports press manager Jasmine Elias.

Overall, it seems the club scene has stratified. The biggest, longest-running nights are as packed as ever with loyal fans.
However, less established parties are struggling as clubbers economise by making safe choices rather than exploring new
events. Numbers for the season may look roughly similar, across the board, but the true story is of a handful of big successes and a host of strugglers.

Of course, Ibiza has almost lost one of its most renowned clubs entirely – DC10. For the full story on the rise and fall of this underground institution see DC10 – club closure?.

By Cila Warncke

MIKE & CLAIRE… CLONES AND ZOMBIES… WALL OF SOUND… MARK RONSON… THE BAREFOOT DOCTOR… FLAMENCO GUITARS… MYLO… FATBOYSLIM… OPERATIC MERMAIDS… HUNKY SAILORS!

The Soundtrack…

Renowned for their vanguard ways, this year Manumission have enlisted the help of Mark (Wall of Sound) Jones and between them, have put together a line up that will have Ibiza shaking in its platform shoes. From Zane Lowe to 2ManyDJs, Mylo to FatBoySlim, Kissy Sell Out to Mark Ronson, these are merely a few of the must see/must hear guests that are set to provide the soundtrack to Manumission 2008. With this year’s parties taking over both rooms of the world’s best club, it’s a match made in Heaven and a gift from the Gods for any discerning music buff.

The Culture Fest…

But Manumission, as always, is not just about the music; rather, it is a cultural explosion that this year incorporates elements of opera from Belgium’s appraised Elise Caluwaerts, Flamenco from the island’s very own Paco Fernandez, costumes from the hand of one of Spain’s finest couturiers, Manuel Albaran, film from Phil Silcock, art from Sergio Ferrer and life changing affirmations from the Barefoot Doctor.
The King & Queen of Manumission, Mike and Claire will take to the stage, joined by their ever adoring and loving crew and cast, in a story of love and gore, life and death, glitter and gyrations, acrobatics and disco antidotes.

The Show and its Cast…

With a storyline based on the weird and the wonderful, the Manumission ‘Coney Island Review’ combines a cast of beauties and freaks in a four act tale of Vaudevillian mischief.

Johnny Golden, Antonio Culebras, Polly Fey, Antonio de la Rosa, the Dynamite Boys and the Manumission Girls are merely a few of the names that make up the momentous cast in a tale of kidnapping and cloning, anti-corporate clampdown and chipping.

Set to a soundtrack created especially for Manumission by A Human, and including lyrics penned by the Queen herself, Claire Manumission, the story tells of the evil Fraudster and the Dandy Doctor’s attempt to kidnap and clone the Manumission crew before dooming them forever to a life of Zombie Hedonism set in a dangerous drag room of transvestites… will our heroes escape from the clutches of the Terrible Two and continue on their Manumission World Tour??

Only one way to find out..

Never one to shy from the weird and the wonderful, this year Manumission is also presenting the ‘Freak of the Week’ with special guests including Lucky, the World’s Most Tattooed Man, and Baby The Acrobatic Vagina.. say no more.

Manumissions theme for 2008 in Amnesia, Ibiza is the “Coney Island review” with various performers and acts as you can see from the image below. We’re looking forward to the opening party!

A good friend came up with this brilliant acronym: V.I.T.A.L which stands for Video, Images, Text, Audio, Links…

So here’s todays VITAL for the IMS

Video:
A brief look at synch or swim… (We also have 5 video interviews to follow – Danny Whittle as he explains the IMS, then 4 of the afternoons lively panel: Andy Mckay from Ibiza Rocks, Andrea Pelino from DC10, Daniel Magdalena from Amnesia and Paco Medina from the Ibiza Consel Insular.) – we also recorded on video the entire panel session…

IMS video of the Synch or Swin panel: http://internationalmusicsummit.com/html/ppv/sinkorswim/

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Images:
Images from today – (Click on any image for a larger 600px wide lightbox version) – In time order:

	Paco Medina – Ibiza Consel

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Text:
The ‘Synch or Swim’ was fascinating. I’m sure people must realise that just selling physical (or even now digital) is not what the music industry only does – whether you are an independant, major label, solo artist, music publisher etc – getting your music out in other channels other than the high street has been something the industry has been doing for years but i think most people havent really acknowledged it – but its hugely important – and everyone gets affected it by whether they know it or not. So since i used to work in that field it was fascinating and hugely interesting – even though i left the business around 10 years ago.

We had to miss the middle section of the day but the one panel that stood out was the one at 5pm – ‘IBIZA: THE YEAR OF CHANGE? HOW IBIZA WILL RE-INVENT ITSELF IN 2008. OR NOT ‘. To say it was eagerly anticipated or packed would be an understatement..

The panel had basically every club owner (or representative) except el divino but also included Andy from ibiza rocks/manumission and most importantly Paco Medina from the Ibiza Consel. It was lively…. It was the first time they all had appeared at the same table in public. There were laughs, vigourous clapping, low and high points but hopefully I think everyone came away with understanding a little more clearly what the government is trying to do and what the clubs have to…

Tomorrow the panel we’re looking forward to is ‘Digital: Digitial Darwinism?’:

This is our review:

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The first Ibiza International Music Summit kicked off today at the sumptuous Atzaro country hotel near to Santa Eulalia and, fortunately, the recent rain held off so the spirits of those in attendance weren’t dampened…

The organizers’ opening speech acknowledged the fact that, for a first event, they had been amazed by the response, with music industry bigwigs flying in from all over the world.

They confided that they would have been happy with fifty at the first attempt.

The three hundred in attendance represented a sell-out, but were warned that this was a business opportunity – a rare chance to meet and exchange thoughts with some of the finest brains in the industry.

So we were all instructed to behave and pay attention till the big finale party on Friday night!

The first panel proved to be an exhibition of the collective wisdom assembled at this conference. We sat enthralled as expert publishers, music supervisors and managers discussed the future of electronic dance music in the face of the demise of the record industry, now confronted by the download generation.

Their suggestions included advertising jingles, film soundtracks and, interestingly, even video game soundtracks… like Grand Theft Auto. The picture that they painted looked very different to that familiar to Ibiza over the last two decades, and we were all left suitably thought-provoked.

The afternoon panel was the one that had been most eagerly awaited by those living on the island. It was to be a historic occasion as a representative from the government sat down with representatives from all from all of the big clubs, in public, for the first time ever!

The first speaker was the government spokesman, Paco Medina, who began by informing us all that he intended to speak Spanish, as a mark of respect to the local journalists present. Unfortunately his translator had failed to turn up, so we received a very brief resume of the government’s position on their decision to change the law on club opening hours, whilst he rambled on in Spanish clearly going into far more detail. Those of us, of the opinion that he intended to bluster on for the full hour scheduled for the panel, were escorted from the room…

Eventually the ‘Moderator’ cut him off and introduced the remaining members of the panel. Pacha, Amnesia, Space, Eden & Es Paradis were all represented, with Circo Loco and Ibiza Rocks thrown in as wild cards.

The early speakers took turns to promise publicly to obey the law, which they all agreed was good for the island, and everything appeared to be going swimmingly.

Until, totally unwittingly, Andrea Pelino of Circo Loco admitted that, in total honesty, Italians like to dance during the daytime, or as the sun rises out of the sea… which is why DC10 has been such a global success story over the last decade.
And hey! Their neighbours include a field full of melons and an airport runway?

The government’s argument that …. “the law had to be changed to protect elderly people and children on their way to school from meeting the summer guests, that have changed their island life so dramatically that many of them find themselves unusually rich” …. was beginning to look a bit ropey…

The assembled audience smelt blood and when Andy McKay of Ibiza Rocks stepped in, with a typically Mancunian slant on events, the room polarized. Whilst agreeing with the ‘party line’ that there had to be rules governing all of those in the market place to ensure a level playing field, he pointed out that the Ibiza music scene needed to change to take account of the fact that the next generation of kids don’t want to watch the DJs their parents like.

For this reason there will be illegal after-parties all over the island that will spawn the next generation of musical talent that will maintain the island’s unique musical credibility – and probably end up performing at the clubs currently throwing obstacles in there path to boot!

When the applause died down the audience cut in with a sequence of difficult questions about how the rest of the world would view these draconian changes, that cut against the free and tolerant image that Ibiza has created so effortlessly over decades?

It was, after all, a global audience entitled to ask – maybe even a little concerned with the lack of official clarification – who exactly this will affect, and how?

The applause built in direct proportion to each question, not only to the discomfort of the government representative, but also those from the big clubs, until Paco Medina, for the government, more or less admitted that they thought it might be a good idea, but at the moment it was sort of experimental – a sort of three year plan?

That, coincidentally, will be the time of the next election, by which time they may have destroyed the lifeblood of island tourism by driving away the young generation, or upset their own voters with falling revenues at their locally owned businesses.

Let’s hope that the government will continue with their brave initiative to sit around the table with the clubs and that all of the latter will be smart enough to prove that they’ve got the message from last year.
Perhaps by starting to apply respect for the law to their own activities, rather than seeking to use to prevent competition?

Then perhaps, using their wealth and favourable relationship with the new government, to further an initiative that was largely ignored this afternoon.
Paco alluded to a new government project being set up to encourage island residents of all ages to embrace and become part of the now well recognized phenomenon called ‘Ibiza artists’.

In musical terms the project involves making available the facilities and knowledge necessary to produce brilliant music. To this end the government is backing a project involving Sonica Radio alongside a number of other globally respected island icons, to generate more ‘Ibiza’ music.

Could it be that they’re not misguided after all – at the very least they’re leading by example and experimenting hand in hand with the experts that already operate in the field.

Could this be a learning curve for all involved…

P.S. The new opening laws won’t apply this weekend – lock up your daughters!

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Audio:
Podcast of the closing of the second panel of the day.

the International Music Summit club panel audio(50 minutes, 47mb mp3)

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Links :
international music summit
www.phreadz.com (for the use of vital )
and lenny cos he’s a good bloke

Here’s a link to the google map we did for the IMS

its just started and its very interesting so far !

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

Today we got down to the task of putting ibiza club tickets on our iphoneibiza.com website.

After mucho help from my old mate kosso we went live about an hour ago – there’s some tweaking to be done, but we’re happy with it so far.

eg. you can buy ibiza rocks hotel opening tickets.

We’re just a few days away now from adding in the full club listings for another classic summer of dance music on the island. It’s all kicking off slightly earlier than usual this year:

Date	Opening Party
Fri 16th May	Es Paradis
Sat 17th May	Eden – Mondo Loco
	Es Paradis – Fiesta Del Agua
Tue 20th May	El Divino – Salvacion
Fri 30th May	Pure Pacha
Sat 31st May	Privilege
	Official Eden Opening
Sun 1st June	Space
Mon 2nd June	DC10 – Circo Loco
Tues 3rd June	Eden – Advanced vs Tidy
Thurs 5th June	Eden – Twice As Nice
	Pacha – F*** Me I’m Famous
Fri 6th June	El Divino
Sat 7th June	Amnesia
	Pacha- Def Mix
Sun 8th June	Eden – Judgement Sundays
	Pacha – Flower Power
Mon 9th June	Eden – Koolwaters
	Es Paradis – Pukka Up
Tues 10th June	Pacha – Defected
Weds 11th June	Space – La Troya
	Privilege – Meganite
	Eden – Garlands
Thurs 12th June	Amnesia – Cream
Fri 13th June	Eden – Wonderland
Sat 14th June	Amnesia – People From Ibiza
Sun 15th June	Space – We Love…
	Es Paradis – Sound Of Baseline
	Pacha – Pacha Classics
Mon 16th June	Amnesia – Cocoon
	Pacha – Release Yourself
Tues 17th June	Amnesia – Armada
Thurs 18th June	Privilege – Monza
Sat 21st June	Privilege – La Comunidad
Mon 23rd June	El Divino – MN2S
Tues 24th June	Es Paradis – Clubland
Sat 28th June	Space – Matinee
Sun 29th June	Amnesia – Juicy
Thurs 3rd July	Space – Danny Tenaglia
Mon 7th July	Privilege – Tiesto