Well,
musically, I say
yes
no question about it. Ibiza
is an inspiring place and a lot of stuff is always going on here.
As far as
the nightlife, well,
it’s hard to be a trend-setter
when you have to be commercial at the same time; when what you do has
become explicitly profit-driven.
It’s hard to be innovative when
everything is strictly regulated; you can’t really try new things,
having to then spend money on massive fines which cut deep into creative
budgets.
And then there is the ‘crisis’.
Parties are/remain the same and
can’t reinvent themselves - or worse: they see their budgets cut and
offer even less than previous years!
This much
said, the ambience in most clubs, from a
clubbing viewpoint (as
opposed to what goes on in the minds of those backstage), remain
magic!
The immense crowds,
the music/beat, lighting, dancers,
shows, effects, performances, DJs..
It’s refreshing, relaxing: I see hope! For
Ibiza,
and for the nightlife at
large.
Sometimes I go clubbing, only in
Ibiza,
just to be a fly on the wall and soak it all in; let the creative juices
flow, hiding in the coulisses or on the balconies.
But I do the math as well:
yes
the dance floor is busy
and no or limited lists were free.
But I can count those with drinks in their hands, usually they are few.
I see the tables in the VIPs - except during peak season - lacking the
bottle sales wished for.
Ibiza
is getting progressively more expensive, is it worth it?
Can people cope with it?
And what’s with increasing prices in a crisis?
We’re talking
flights, hotels, apartments and car rentals. To name a few things.
How about the island’s
drug-infested reputation?
That makes many a good client steer clear of
Ibiza.
As far as drugs, well,
that’s not a topic on which I’m an expert.
It’s not my thing, and I don’t really see the need for it all. It seems
to create nothing but problems and dilemmas, such as where to find it,
hide it, take it, and how to fund it.
Not to mention the obvious physical tell-tale signs which makes it easy
for even complete strangers to classify you according to your
party-favor habits. It’s not a pretty sight.
Maybe I’m getting older, wiser and out of touch, but it seems like the
youngsters are doing so much of it all that they are losing out on the
essential experience, which is really a shame.
All they know is what the drugs, not
Ibiza,
do for them; a psychedelic
short-cut in a way.
But like everything else, the long
hard way tend to be more rewarding:
the essence of the night.
It’s an animal like nothing else.
Forget everything you’ve ever known, and allow yourself to be carried
away. Relax, open your mind and
spirit, and take it all in:
the music, the beat,
what it physically does to you without drug-induced modifications,
the crowd, the eye-candy such
as lighting, shows, dancers
and projections.
It might take some practice, but sooner or later you will start feeling
the magic of the
night without needing something to help you along the way.
It’s a
beast, the nightlife; it
just needs to be properly awoken, and that comes from within.
If you feel like you still need drugs just to enjoy, well, that’s
probably because something else is eating away at you. Something you
need to resolve as quickly as possible.
Hiding behind drugs in the heat of the night where everything goes will
not solve your problems.
It will just put a lid on it all and once you take that lid off it might
have all multiplied beyond salvation. Then you might need to permanently
alter your existence with drugs just to be able to make it through the
day.
As Frank Sinatra once put it, “I’m
for whatever gets you through the night.”
Unfortunately a lot of people do live like that.
Sinatra spoke for the peeps on his schedule, the other nine to five, but
there are day-time people like that as well.
That’s an unnecessary, complicated, alternative existence to create for
yourself.
Especially if you slip into it when you are young and fresh and your
life is a clean slate; I know many pot-heads from my teens who are now
crack-heads a decade later.
Life is complicated enough as it is, why add on to it?
As far as
Ibiza
is concerned, you can’t really go home and pretend to have an opinion
about it, if all you have to describe is how popping that pill made you
feel at
Space or
Pacha,
this pill made you feel at
Amnesia
or
Privilege, that powder made you feel on the
beach, and
smoking that crap made you
experience the sunset.
