Cream at Sea
The longest running UK club night in Ibiza took to the ocean to rally up an intimate picking of dancebots before they took to Amnesia's sweeping dancefloors.
The overcast loom that engulfed the island might have been against us, but the bubble of energy that flooded the Float Your Boat - Cream boat party couldn't be stemmed. UK house DJ, Philip George, steered the tunes as the sea skimmer took off for a three hour sesh and from the get go the party pack, whetted with a helpful measure of on the house sangria, were off.
Glam beachwear clad babes and a well approved troupe of the male breed were completely undeterred by the constant battle against being smashed against the bare steeled sides. Philip's electro house selection came in with a feast of classics bashing out numbers including Marshall Jefferson's Move Your Body, Mory Kante's Yeke Yeke, Junior Jack's Just Do It, Nalin and Kane's Beachball, ATB's Til I Come, and right into his own track, Wish You Were Mine.
With an extra half hour of ocean adventure lumped in, we made our way back to the pier, two hours before the biggy...
Cream on land
Fans of trance and electro-house, the old and new of many creeds packed into both rooms. In the terrace, Philip George commanded a strong presence, giving some of the revelers who were lucky to see him twice in one day, another spinning of Wish You Were Here.
I'd already seen Philip's finesse, so I headed through to the main room, where one of the main lures of the night – English progressive trance trio Above & Beyond - were already in full swing. And again - energy, energy and more energy from buzzed up, colourfully cladded troopers of a cocktail of ages and nationalities who raised their limbs for the trio's selection, which served up Jean Michel Jarre & Tangerine's Zero Gravity (Above & Beyond mix), and another of their own catalogued smashers, Sticky Fingers. The lyrics might be “get your sticky fingers out of my face” but from getting a look on the action, sticky fingers were quite welcome.
Another British talent, Danny Howard, who has progressed at a phenomenal speed and graced the biggest international dance festivals and clubs, laid the house tracks thick to the terrace which stayed healthily packed. Duke Dumont's The Giver, Junior Jack's E Samba and Tough Love's So Freakin' Tight are just some of the infectious beat-packed tracks which went down a storm.
Fedde Le Grand raised the tempo in his typically progressive style, but I want to fast forward to the Cream Ibiza resident's set next door. I didn't plan on staying until the sweeter than bitter end. After three nights at Amnesia and a beast sized luggage move to the other side of the island the next day, I was rinsed out. But then came a monster selection of nostalgia inducing late naughties classics perfectly timed with Fedde Le Grand's set finishing for the rest of the punters to take what made trance so magical. Absolute belters, every single one of them. Straight on Youtube I was, in there with the trance classics at 8am before a 9am horrendous move. Art Of Trance's Madagascar, Push's Universal Nation, CRW's I Feel Love and Ayla's Ayla which suited the explosion of bucket hats not seen (shouldn't be seen) since Kevin & Perry Go Large.
An epic moment of the night was when I spotted an older guy of the crowd whip out a teddybear on the podium. I thought, “aw aye, we've got one here,” kept an eye on it and noticed his lady friend got her own matching bear out before they took off, bears out. So I followed them and asked what the bear chat was in aid of and he simply told me, "they're party bears". And why the hell not eh? Not enough cuddly toys on the dancefloor. Left them to it, inspired.
At close of doors I wasn't the only person lumped out in the daylight feeling like a wooded animal, but I'll be returning for the last blast of trance before the season is out. Glow Stick and a Postman Pat cuddly pal in tow.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence PHOTOGRAPHY | Marc de Groot
