This saturday Mimo have their winter opening party down at Guarana. It starts at 11pm, ends at 6am and feeatures Jon Howell and Jon Jak.

However, the same night is Vaughan’s (Pacha Funky Room) FUNKT night at Aura so we’ll start at Aura and end at Guarana since it’s walking distance from our beds…

Who says Ibiza is dead in the winter ???

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.

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

“It is never too late to give up our prejudices,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. Little did I expect a nightclub to make his case.

Last year I swore off Privilege. One night too many being groped by Italians while wandering fruitlessly around the dancefloor in search of some atmosphere and I decided the World’s Largest Club isn’t for me. Give me the sweat-dripping walls of DC10 or Amnesia’s sci-fi splendour any day.

If it weren’t for my friends Helen and Nikki who are promoting hip-hop trio Sophisticated Funk (playing the second room) at SuperMartXe’s Friday night party I wouldn’t go anywhere near the place.

I do, though, but with vertically-challenged expectations. Especially after popping to Underground for a drink and discovering it’s empty at 2AM. Only walking up the road to Privilege do I realise something is happening. A traffic accident, I assume, from the massive tailback of cars trailing out of the drive and back down the carretera.

Pushing through palm fronds and pebbles towards the main entrance I can’t figure out what’s going on. There are these people, everywhere, scrambling through the underbrush, shouting at each other in Spanish or Italian, smoking, grumbling. “This isn’t the freaking queue?” I groan. Oh yes it is. Forty stifling, elbow-riddled minutes later my friends and I stumble out of the crush and through the entrance into another crush - a gloriously OTT swirl of bodies, lights, thumping house music and grinning faces.

SuperMartXe is reputedly a Madrileno gay night with a heavily Spanish following. In fact, it is completely mixed in every sense. And what a blinding show it makes: couples of every persuasion; gangs of friends chattering in a assorted languages as they struggle for space on the dancefloor; the white-hot blaze of the glittering SuperMartXe logo in lights across the stage; dozens of perfectly sculpted, expensively enhanced dancers wearing imagination-defyingly tiny outfits (a baby oil sales exec’s dream come true) and a staggering stage set - the whole display a glorious triumph of pomp over seriousness.

My friend - a Privilege virgin - is standing goggle-eyed: “Now this is what I expected an Ibiza club to be,” he says reverently. And he’s right. I’ll be back. Without prejudice.

Photos and text By Cila

(Cila is an occasional/regular contributor to the blog and Ibiza NOW magazine.)

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.

its just started and its very interesting so far !

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

This mornings 1st panel was about synchronisation - or as i used to know it: 3rd party exploitation - I have to declare an interest since my job used to be to clear and authorise UK owned Polygram (Universal) repertoire for use in TV ads, Radio commercials, premiums (giveaways) etc worldwide, so for me it was fascinating to see 6 serious players on the panel discuss synch’ing.
We also did a short video interview with Danny Whittle which we’ll put up as soon as we can.

This afternoon’s panel should be interesting with nearly all the club owners on the same table as the Consel….:

IBIZA: THE YEAR OF CHANGE? HOW IBIZA WILL RE-INVENT ITSELF IN 2008. OR NOT
Moderator: Samuel Guetta, Ibiza Voice
1: Paco Medina, Ibiza Consel Insular
2: Andy McKay, Ibiza Rocks
3: Juan Arenas, Space
4: Andrea Pelino, Circo Loco
5: Isaac Hidalgo, Eden
6: Marisol Aguirre, Es Paradis
7: Daniel Magdalena, Amnesia
8: Francisco Ferrer, Pacha
9: Manuel Lopez, Privilege

Some more photos from this morning

	Pete Tong introduces the IMS founders: (himself) Ben Turner, Steve Hulme, Mark Netto and Danny Whittle

The Panel. Neil Barnes, Randy Reed, Adam Wolf, Kerri Mason (Billboard Magazine), Jason Bentley, Bruno Roussel, Adam Bradley	Neil Barnes from Leftfield (left)

	Adam Wolf, Pig Factory Publishing

Bruno Roussel, Editor Six Feet Under, Las Vegas	Lenny Ibizarre

	Danny Whittle

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:

• Ibiza Rocks Hotel will open probably around the middle of May (ish) - expect a surprise “do”…
• Pete Tong leaves Pacha and starts his own night at Eden called Wonderland
• Defected will be back at Pacha
• Amnesia opening party will be 14th June
• People from Ibiza opening party at Amnesia will be June 21st
• Rogue / Good For Nothing will be back at Judgement Sundays at Eden - opening party is 8th June
• Radio 1 Weekend will be Fri 1st- Sun 3rd August
• Space Opening 1st June
• Eden Opening May 31st

Pete Tong at Ibiza Rocks 2007 (at the Kaiser Chiefs gig)	Arctic Monkeys at Ibiza Rocks 2007

UPDATE: All the photos are now in the photo gallery and theres a review in the Nightlife News section of our main website here