San Juan, San Antonio & Santa Eulalia this afternoon released a press release regarding the new music council (and not Ibiza Town & San Jose). It seems they are not happy bunnies…. (it also confirms that the meeting was held with the 7 club owners)

(this is a google translation of the press release - our highlights in bold):

Given the turn of information ranging sucediéndose after the last Council of Mayors last 10th of January on the creation of the Council of Music and the meeting held two days after the President of the Council and representatives of all Municipalities with the owners of seven of our island leisure, we want to demonstrate the following:

1 The philosophy of the Consell de la Musique has always been to unify the schedules and other regulations through the bylaws, eradicating illegal tender, “after hours” and the image of party continued unchecked. These are the only aspects accepted and agreed by the Council of Mayors.

2 The relaxation of the regulations, the involvement of clubs, some in promoting tourism with public money and publicize the Ibiza “sun disc,” which so far has been inclusive of marketing in other markets, have been initiatives by the Chairman of the Island Council and that we do not share in the terms in which they were published.

3 We have always defended and maintained that music is a very important asset for tourism in our island that we can not in any way disparage or wasted, but we believe that public money should not be allocated to this promotion focused only about “disco phenomenon “, which can not intervene in it only seven night or just one sector, and that any initiative must be from strict compliance with the law (ordinances consensual) by establishments engaged in this activity.

4 The law of integrated activities has given more powers to the municipalities in this area, which along with the consensus on the ordinance, has advanced the control of irregularities and illegalities occurring.

Therefore, we share the importance of music as a promotional item and the need to position Ibiza as a benchmark, but we are not prepared to reverse the steps you have taken and the agreements that must be taken first and foremost respect tranquillity, Rest, health and welfare of citizens, residents and visitors.

UPDATE 14/01/08: Since that Independent article by a writer in Barcelona erroneously quoted the “ban” times by San Jose council, hundreds of websites and message boards have been quoting it - its not 6am to 10am - its 6am to 12 noon and in reality only affects DC10 & Space - and even then numbers during those times are minimal considering the numbers overall. This is an edict from Madrid, part of the national governments plans for the whole of Spain.

The first meeting of the new Music Council of Ibiza took place yesterday in the Consell. The committee has been formed to promote music and nightlife in Ibiza to the rest of the world. One initial concern is that they have performed a u-turn on the fact that in the Tourism Marketing plan “No public funds should be earmarked for specfic promotiona actvities of this segment [nightclubs]“.

According to the chairman of the council, Xico Tarres, “this is not a contradiction because it is a change and evolution since all things are subject to change.” “We want Eivissa to remain number one of the world in terms of music, which can not continue without being aware of what can happen because we treat it badly.”
(translated)

Tarrés added “that the efforts will be reciprocal, as the clubs could agree to open earlier and later in the season for at least a year “to see if it is possible to lengthen the season.”

Unsurpringly The President of the Federation of Spanish nightclubs Pere Vidal, said he was “very satisfied” after the meeting. However one island musician tried unsuccesfully to attend the meeting and said that “musicians have not had any say over the years and everything indicates that the (council) will be a forum for nightclub owners, who are already rich and now will have a share of the money promoting tourism”.

The council though did state there will be further meetings with bars, promoters and resident musicians.

Maybe they’ve finally realised that all the negative press thats been generated over the course of 2007 has come back to bite them and they need to start sorting out their pr. department…