30,000 people partying per day and 500 euro hotels: the nightclub season begins in Ibiza

IbizaFriday, April 24, Pacha and Amnesia; Saturday, 25, Hï Ibiza; Sunday, 26, Ushuaïa and UNVRS; Monday, 27, DC-10... If you are expert clubbers you will have recognized the calendar ofopenings of the Ibizan clubs, a true marathon for party acrobats. Impossible to be at all of them. Or is it? “Most people go to at least two or three parties”, explains the manager of the Ocio de Ibiza association, José Luis Benítez. The trip to Ibiza has to be amortized. Most of the tickets have already been sold for weeks; in total, about 30,000 tickets, a figure that is also the total capacity of the Ibizan clubs. Yes, in Ibiza there can be about 30,000 people –legally– partying every day. This year, the clubs have once again anticipated the openings –traditionally they had always been in May– aware that they are the ones who kick off the Ibizan season. And it works: Iberia Express has had to put on 12 additional flights between Madrid and Ibiza due to the openings. The dancing machine will not stop until the first or second week of October; in case you are interested, the tickets for the closings are also on sale.

Five and a half months without interruption of parties, DJs and strobe lights, if the war and the Strait of Hormuz allow it. “This year could be very tough, with extraordinary uncertainty,” admits the manager of Ocio de Ibiza. “Here we are very unaccustomed to making easy money, but if flight prices start to increase...”, he laments. Super-cheap flights from low-cost airlines are a key part of the Ibiza machinery. Just staying in Ibiza in a four-star hotel during high season will cost you 400 or 500 euros per night, with no extras. The ticket to see David Guetta at UNVRS will cost you 100 euros; if you want to see Calvin Harris at Ushuaïa, 125. Add it up. So it's important that flights are cheap, the cheaper the better. Besides, at some point you'll have to eat... That's why stays in Ibiza are getting shorter and shorter: lightning trips to see that particular DJ, go for a dip in Las Salinas, take a photo for Insta and go back. José Luis Benítez is confident in the resilience of the Spanish, Italian and English tourist, regular clients of the sector and the majority of the Ibizan summer. “If the war in Iran drags on, Mallorca will suffer even more; the German tourist is more fearful,” Benítez ventures.

The party has peaked

The entertainment offer in Ibiza has no competition right now. Six of Ibiza's major nightclubs have made it into DJ Mag's Top20, a benchmark magazine in the sector: UNVRS, Ushuaïa, Hï Ibiza, Amnesia, Pacha, and DC-10. The first three –all owned by the Matutes Business Group– occupy, respectively, the first, third, and fourth positions in the ranking. UNVRS has achieved first place in its first year of existence; an unprecedented event. In twenty years, it had never happened that a new nightclub reached the top of the classification. “What we have is more than enough”, acknowledges the manager of Ocio de Ibiza. “In Ibiza, we have reached saturation point, not only in entertainment, but practically in everything; from now on, the approach must be one of restraint.” Before the pandemic, nightclubs asking for “restraint” would have caused surprise and consternation. For decades, the mantra in Ibiza has been growth without many limits. But the feeling of saturation in the summer is such that “restraint” has become a mantra, not only for many business sectors but also for the Administration. “We must eliminate all kinds of illegalities”, Benítez concludes. “This is what causes us a feeling of saturation; it's since any dive bar has been able to be rented out that things have gotten out of hand.”

The nightlife sector does not even suffer from the ill that afflicts the rest of the Ibizan tourism sector: the persistent lack of staff. If anything, it does not suffer from it with the same severity. “Think that, in the case of discotheques, people normally choose to work there,” assures José Luis Benítez. “It is a schedule they choose, because they prefer to work at night and enjoy the day in another way; it is young staff who take advantage of the summer to pay for their studies or who in winter go to work at ski resorts or abroad.”

Ibiza's nightlife enjoys a position that any business sector would want: world leadership, practically guaranteed income, and not many problems. Some even think that the unstable situation in the Middle East could be beneficial for tourism in areas considered safe like Ibiza. Dubai – one of the seven United Arab Emirates – was, in fact, one of the few destinations that could compete with Ibiza's party scene. "We don't like tourism driven by war at all," they state categorically at Ocio de Ibiza. War and partying may not be entirely incompatible, as long as they don't happen in the same place. But the sustained rise in prices can be fatal for any business. So, yes: it seems the sun will shine on Ibiza for another summer. As long as the shadow of Donald Trump's quiff doesn't get too long.