Written by Izzy Seddon
Finally it was here, the party I’d been waiting for, the last EVER Space Opening party!! For 27 years Space has been home to some of the most important parties on the island and anyone who knows me will know how much I love Space, from Richie Hawtin’s night Enter, to Carl Cox’s Revolution and We Love Sundays, I absolutely adore the place! Saddened by the news that Pepe was going to close Space in its current Playa D’en Bossa location for good, I made it my mission to finally attend my first and last Space opening party after years of making the pilgrimage to the closing! I wanted to get there early to soak in as much of the atmosphere as I could, loaded myself up with a pollo bocadillo and a can of gin & tonic from the Spar opposite (like the classy Brit bird I am), I set off! We walked straight into the car park which had been turned into a festival style space with giant stage and tarpaulin to keep off some of the summer’s heat. Mimes on stilts greeted us as we made our way through the already burgeoning crowd to get to the front and see what was going on.
So many people were adorned with We Love stickers and were carrying red fans from the infamous La Troya night. The atmosphere was immense, I swear everyone had just flown in especially for this once in a lifetime party! People really pulled out all the stops on their outfits and lack thereof, I wondered how they’d get on once nightfall left the infamous car park with its enormous stage in a blanket of stars and the bitter cold I’d felt on previous nights. Nothing would deter this crowd though, they were ready for the biggest and best party of their lives! Everyone was just on a proper buzz, totally hyped for the craziness which would ensue. It was lovely to hear so many different languages as we walked through the crowd, but definitely a big presence from the Italians and Spanish. Those guys just love to party!
The Open Air Stage in the car park was nothing short of spectacular, the production which had gone into it was insane and I absolutely adored watching Wally Lopez with his signature massive glasses. His set was pretty great, loads of classics and he really got the crowd going! When he dropped Julian Jewell – “Air Conditioning” the whole crowd went nuts and really enjoyed the relief of the cool air blasting from the giant air cannons. He even dropped some pretty heavy tracks like Artbat – “Momentum Master” which really got everyone fist pumping!
The last ever @SpaceIbiza opening party going right off yesterday on the outdoor stage! @wallylopez smashing it! pic.twitter.com/4yvNDexOoY
— Uneek Ibiza (@uneekibiza) May 30, 2016
We went for a little explore before the massive club with 5 rooms and giant car park began to feel too busy, surprisingly it only took until around 8.30pm to feel pretty heaving outside! We ventured up to the Premier Etage and enjoyed kicking back and enjoying some vodka fanta limon in the lush surroundings with private jets and planes full of holidaymakers going overhead what felt like every 5 minutes. It was a nice chilled out set from Electronic Exultation, who do a weekly show on Ibiza Global Radio every Wednesday. These guys paved the way for Aphotek who brought out some very tasty techno and totally changed the vibe of the room, in a good way. It certainly got us up and dancing!
We wandered down the main stairway through to the main room on our little mission and came across Mikaela. The Onyx resident played an incredibly dark and minimal set, which I felt would have been more suited later on because she absolutely smashed it! The crowd she enticed from the heat of outside into the chilling air conditioned main room stayed for the duration, with one guy really giving it his all along with neon rave gear!
Sufficiently satisfied with dark techno, we headed back through the Sunset Terrace where we were greeted by Baum and his awesome bouncy house vibes. My IMS pal Tom had made friends with Nate from Melbourne on Day 1 and we bumped into him and his wife, named Adelaide! We now had a nice little crew to continue our adventure. Baum dropped my proclaimed track of the summer Kerrier District – “Techno Disco (KiNK remix)” before going into one of Tom’s favourite tunes Pete Heller – “Big Love”. The vibes were pretty beautiful, everyone was so happy and energised for life and the rest of the night!! It was hard to drag them away, but my heart sang for Dennis Ferrer.
And my god was I glad we made a good life decision and headed back out to the car park!! Dennis dropped banger after banger and made me fall in love with house music all over again!! It was still light outside and the dance floor was now completely jam packed so we pushed our way through and found a cosy little spot to get our stomp on!! He came out with massive tunes like his remix of London Grammar’s “Sights”, SBTRKT – “Hold On” Feat. Sampha (Matthias Meyer Remix) and Gene Farris – “The Way U Like” with its filthy lyrics! As the sun was setting the tunes got deeper and darker, perfect for the night sky as backdrop and the strobes coming out in full force. More of the La Troya dancers on stilts came out and did their thing. The light show on the stage turned into a visual explosion of cosmic stratospheres.
The next artist to grace the Open Air Stage with their presence was probably what most people were most excited about, Booka Shade Live! With this year marking the tenth anniversary of the German House Duo’s seminal album ‘Movements’, this was going to be extremely special indeed. The energy was electric and Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger just did their thing, with live drums bringing a unique element to their set. The best moment had to be when the first notes of “Body Language” dropped and they reached for the mic and said “alright Ibiza, this is your song, let’s hear everybody”. The congregation joined forces singing “bum bum ba-dum” in unison, I wouldn’t say it was melodically pleasing but an awesome moment nonetheless! The ice cannons went on full blast just before the initial drop and everyone went completely nuts!! This was met by an uptempo edit with a really intense interlude, before they went into their final song, my personal favourite “In White Rooms”. Stunning from start to finish.
There was a huge build up with an over the top heartbeat looping “Erick Morillo is in the house” with Daft Punk – “Teachers” playing, to a rather underwhelming house tune, time to head back inside to catch a bit of Doorly in El Salon! A perfect set of disco and house tunes new and old, like Armand Van Helden – “Full Moon”. Back to Premier Etage for a few tequilas before finishing the night in the Main Room for Roger Sanchez.
Roger Sanchez played an absolutely electric set of house classics and new bangers like Darius Syrossian – “Hans Trippy (Cuartero remix)”. I love his unique style of mashing total classics together like Green Velvet’s – “The Stalker” with the vocals from Rui De Silva’s – “Touch Me”, moving masterfully onto Tiger Stripes’ – “Ego Express” and then Park & Sons – “Uncle Carl” like some kind of wizard! I was totally entranced by his technique and watching how he played his mixer like an instrument!! There was plenty of latin influence and plenty of moments of pure ecstasy to keep the crowd going at that time of the morning!! He finished on Riva Starr’s – “Body Movin” with the lyric from Chuck Roberts – “My House” “In the beginning there was Jack” perfectly bringing on Erick Morillo! By this time bed was definitely calling and he’d already played a stonking first set on the Open Air Stage.
