Hï Ibiza burst into season 2017 to rip into the masses of clubbers who were to descend on the White Isle for dance floor meat. The breeds of dance music heard reverberating across those newly-polished walls were techno, house, trance, electro house, EDM, progressive house, disco, soul and tech house, among more. We could throw in a couple more flavours in there, but you get the point, right? Musically speaking, there was plenty going on.
The opening party said hola to Ibiza clubland with a tech-heavy bang back in May, and on Sunday it set out to close the season with a solid punch to our senses. That is, in part, to celebrate the past few months, but an Ibiza closing party also intends to make an impact and have us knocking down those club doors the following summer.
Without further ado, here are our top five reasons for why Hï Ibiza's closing party was an absolute blinder, which might just leave you with something to think about for summer 2018…
Special guests in the mix
A club closing is absolutely about the regular DJs who've come to know the inner workings of that nighthawk space. For that reason, we had in residents Nic Fanciulli, Andrea Oliva, Kölsch and Steve Lawler, alongside previous guests Guy Gerber, Agoria, Solardo, wAFF, Housekeeping, Mr Doris, Bas Ibellini and Dublin.
However, we clubbers can be on the demanding side. We want our closing parties with a few special guests chucked in there too, and luckily our requirements are normally obeyed. The big guns fulfilling our needs were HYTE dominator Loco Dice and Paradise chief, Jamie Jones. With neither having set foot behind the booth, their set times in the Theatre were unmissable, for sure.
Both slammed in with groove-packed, bomb-dropping sets that had pulses raising and all that good goosebumps stuff. Jamie Jones tucking in Technotronic's classic monster Pump Up The Jam has to be up there as one of the biggest sonic highlights of the night.
Hands were up, spirits were higher, and Dice and Jones have to take a sizeable portion of the credit.
Wild Corner nonsense
Should we be surprised when we say that where the real action is going on at Hï Ibiza is the toilets? Probably not. At house parties the best places to be are either the kitchen or the bathroom, so there you go; it's science.
The Wild Corner has earned itself a reputation as being the go-to spot for clubbers after something that little bit quirky, and rightly so. What you get in here, whether you're in it for the long-haul or a quick flush, is a spirit-lifting atmosphere loaded with superb tunes of the house and disco variety.
With Paul Reynolds and Scott Gray of the Melon Bomb crew back in, we knew we'd be in for an absolute blinder. Expectations were instantly met with Floorplan's eargasmic track Never Grow Old being the one to welcome us in, and that was followed by Jerome Sydenham's mix of Julien Jabre's Swimming Places. I got very, very excited. Tracks that followed later included Demuir's wonderfully-titled disco bumper Buttery Curves and Motor City Drum Ensemble's smooth weapon Raw Cuts 3.
If you follow us on Instagram – which you should be – you might have already seen some of the above action on our Insta Story, and you'd probably have to agree that it sounded fantastic.
Champion crowd
As with any newly-opened club, it's going to go through some growing pains, especially when it follows on from one that had a 27-year history. What now stands is a futuristic, state-of-the-art club that's all shiny and new.
With that, people will have their phones out constantly. It's inevitable, and to some degree, understandable. But still, being surrounded by clubbers with their faces plugged to their screens for a good chunk of the night is a turn-off. So, it was fantastic to see plenty of hands in the air holding nothing but air. They went in for it, good and proper.
Closings tend to bring out the fiends. They bring out the kind of cats who fully comprehend that it's nearly all over, and for that reason, they throw themselves in deep with plenty of attitude and stamina.
From dusk till dawn…and then there was noon
Attending closings is like a battle with planet earth's orbital motion. Can you crack on until you see those rays first breaking through? Will you feel the intensity of the sun warm as it reaches noon?
Quite often it's a test of endurance, or you can rock in at 5:00 in the morning and you've got it in the bag. Regardless of what your method is, clubbing during that transition always feels a little more special and on Sunday we had Guy Gerber, wAFF and Nic Fanciulli battering through the electronic beat during those favoured hours. All were on top form, with Gerber's select of Mr. G's soulful cut Transient being a big moment, and Fanciulli stepped up to the booth in the closing party's final assault with PAX's tech house peach Power.
While the sun can't fully penetrate either of Hï Ibiza's big rooms, seeing the sun peeking through from the doors and lapping it up in the garden area sufficed.
Spacey décor
When you have clubbers questioning what planet they're on, you know something's working. One of Hï Ibiza's biggest weapons is its design and décor.
Our attentions have been tilted toward the ceiling all season, and we had one final opportunity to gaze upward at the closing. Slow-moving, spherical mirrors hovered above us in the Theatre, with rows of lit spheres and mirrored disco balls being illuminated throughout.
It was an eyeball-gazing extravaganza. You don't need to take our word for it as the pictures almost do it justice.
