The night fades in Ibiza

IbizaThat the night is going dark in Ibiza is not a metaphor. This weekend the main clubs on the island are closing. Especially the three large establishments owned by the Matutes family: Ushuaïa, Hï and the new UNVRS (Universo), with a megaclosing ensemble called The Trilogy. As I write these lines (Thursday noon), there are still tickets left for the closing a set priced at 410 euros, with no extras, just for entry. If you want to make the most of the time allowed by the ticket, you'll have to be there from 1 p.m. on Saturday, starting at Ushuaïa, until sunrise on Monday the 13th, at UNVRS, with only a few hours of rest on Sunday. This weekend, only Pachá will try to compete with this trilogy, with a self-proclaimed Grand Closing Weekend. Afterwards, between Monday and Tuesday, there will be the closing from DC10, the club next to the airport specializing in the most electronic music underground. An ending that will be epic, if time allows.

And that's it. 'Thank God!' some Ibizan will exclaim. closings test the patience of residents, with thousands of clubbers trying to take advantage of the last minutes of the festivities and thousands of students and parents trying not to be late to school. All in turn, in 570 square kilometers. On Monday of the closings These two worlds collide head-on. The Ocio de Ibiza association is aware of this. "We know that we're not well-liked by some in the public eye," laments its manager, José Luis Benítez. "And the truth is, it hurts us, because we're companies from Ibiza that try to do our job as best we can." Getting five or six thousand people into a nightclub and not having anything happen that could make the news in the newspapers can't be easy. And Ibizan nightclubs (almost always) manage to do it.

Checkmate

The news of the season in Ibiza has been the opening of UNVRS (formerly Privilege, and even before that the legendary KU). The acquisition by the Matutes family has just completed a glorious trio that, with the right budget, allows them to dominate any time and any area of Ibizan entertainment: Ushuaïa as an afternoon club. Now, they've achieved the final straw. It's a matter of economies of scale: being the biggest to have maximum purchasing power. That is, booking DJs, who are the true owners of the night. Not even Pachá, sold to an investment fund, can dream of overshadowing them.

Proof of this can be found in the lineup of DJs who have been split up this summer between the three clubs: David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Fisher, Carl Cox, Martin Garrix, Eric Prydz... Some of these gentlemen can easily earn more than €250,000 for two and a half hours of playing. "A new player has arrived who has radically changed the game," says Benítez. UNVRS's focus is clearly on uninhibited commercialism, creating big shows for the masses.Instagrammers; yes, because the clubbers They no longer dance, too focused on capturing the moment (with Guetta playing in the background!) and hanging up the reel On Instagram, there's talk of the loss of identity of Ibiza's nightlife. "I don't think any past has been better; the parties we had before have nothing to do with those we have now," explains the manager of Ocio de Ibiza. "People want to see something else, that's why our focus is on creating a spectacle; all we've done is keep moving forward and adapting."

They say selling consists of giving the customer what they want. And the focus is on making Ibiza the world's nightlife mecca, now without question. And selling a lot. Not in vain, people like Guetta and Calvin Harris are primarily responsible for making EDM (electronic dance music) a mass product today.

Ibiza: the disco-addicted island

The dark side of this business is the extraordinary dependence on nightclubs. If the Balearic Islands have put all their eggs in the basket of tourism, in Ibiza we have played even harder: putting our eggs in only one sector of tourism: leisure. Twenty years ago, Ibiza promoted itself with the slogan "All the islands in one" (in English, of course: "All islands in one'), a slogan launched by the Consell de Eivissa but especially by Ibizan hoteliers. 'All the islands in one' was, even at that time, a way of saying "hey, in Ibiza there's so much more: heritage, beaches, nature, restaurants..., not just nightclubs."

We could argue whether, at that time, the slogan was true. Today we should admit that Ibiza, as a brand, depends on nightlife to a very high degree. The hoteliers themselves have thrown themselves into the wake of the clubs, converting part of the hotel facilities into adult only (Portinacho, areas of Santa Eulària...) and throwing out family tourism. The leisure sector employs around 3,000 people, including direct and indirect contracts; it's a figure that can't be ignored. But its effect on the image and economy of Ibiza is much more decisive. So families are becoming an endangered tourist species in Ibiza. Like lizards. "There's no family tourism in October," recalls José Luis Benítez. "If tourism exists in Ibiza right now, it's thanks to the nightclubs." It's completely true: there's no family tourism in October. But there are families trying to get to school. So, residents and nightclubs will probably continue to be like those old married couples, who live together peacefully (because, after all, for what's left of us...), but who in reality hate each other deeply and silently.