What hasn’t been said about Space Ibiza over the past 20 years that needs saying now? Well, for starters, there’s the fact that 2010 is the year Space comes of age… that’s right, it’s their big 21st birthday this year.
Over the course of this time, pretty much everyone and their dogs (though Space stopped allowing people to bring their dogs to the venue 10 years ago, so we can’t clarify) has been to the hallowed Playa D’en Bossa venue and had the time of their lives. Why are we telling you this if you’ve already in fact been to Space Ibiza? Because chances are you had such a great time you won’t remember it, but rest assured if you’ve been at one of We Love’s legendary Sunday parties or a gig put on by the folk at We Love… you will most certainly have had a blast!
Rewind to the summer of 1989, when Space Ibiza opted to ignore the norm and open its doors to the public while everybody else was closing theirs – and boom! The after-party phenomenon was born. At this time, the legendary Space nightclub Ibiza was home to the lost souls, party queens and workers who hadn’t enough money for rent, its dark interior providing the perfect place to either pick up trade, dance the day away or catch a few hours shut eye before starting work! Then some bright spark decided it might be a good idea to whack a couple of decks out the back where they kept the rubbish bins and crates of booze, and thus the infamous Space Ibiza Terrace was born.
English party doyens Brandon Block and Alex P arguably gave birth to the first wave of Brits to be attracted to Space Ibiza with their blend of cheesy vocal anthems and up for it party attitude, hosting the first few years of terrace action to a growing audience of ‘workers’ every Sunday. Space became firmly entrenched in the (house) nation’s consciousness as the place to be every Sunday when you happened to find yourself stranded on the Med.
Fast-forward through 20 plus years of crazy parties, a major remodeling of the venue almost yearly plus the recent draconian island laws and Space Ibiza is a very different animal to the strange little gay after-hours venue it began its now-illustrious life as. Home to ourselves and the humungous Carl Cox parties, Space Ibiza has definitely grown out of her original shell, now taking up around 65 percent of Playa D’en Bossa, pushing hotels even closer towards the sea front and the water park it shares its land with ever closer to the airport. The club now gives even overgrown dinosaur Privilege a run for its Guinness money regularly attracting crowds in excess of 15,000 to the Space Ibiza opening and closings.
So what are we doing this year to celebrate Space Ibiza finally being of legal age? Pulled out all the stops and spent far too much money of course!
Some of this years highlights include:
- In a clubbing coup of sorts, we’ve managed to coerce the king of electronica, Aphex Twin out of his cave and onto a flight to showcase his unique DJ/VJ/laptop show at the closing party. There’s more than one electronic music enthusiast chomping at the bit over here to see that one… or drooling with excitement as the case may be.
- Basement Jaxx breaking their 2010 Ibiza drought to perform just one DecksnFX special gig on the island this summer, at our mammoth closing party no less
- The news we’ve managed to score all-round nice techno guy Joris Voorn for a massive six-date exclusive residency.
- Steve Lawler comes home to the terrace for six dates. He’s about to get hitched, so we suspect he’s saving up for that honeymoon – or perhaps six weekends spent in Ibiza IS his idea of a honeymoon?
- Simian Mobile Disco come back to the We Love… family fold with a four-date residency that’s so-nerdy-it’s-cool.
- Paul Woolford continues on his annual quest to leave the Terrace crowd with an uplifting-yet-quirky tune at the end of each night, as they stumble out into the dawn.
- We’re handing over the reins of our very own disco inferno, El Salon, to a very select crew of partners, who’ll be spending alternate weeks hosting the room in their own unique (some say ‘special’) ways. At the controls we’ve got Hackney-based label Tirk Records, East London underground champs Disco Bloodbath, the hopping mad Black Rabbit and Jade Jagger’s Jezebel.
- Our favourite feline Miss Kittin returns for two dates, including one very special Republique date where she’ll be sharing the decks with the aforementioned Mr Lawler.
- The original Dirty Bird himself, Claude VonStroke returns for a three-date residency - having absolutely rocked the room on all of his previous gigs for We Love... we're looking forward to seeing what he unleashes this summer.
- The Detroit resurgence continues as Derrick May storms through our Discoteca not once, but twice… Seeing as the club got hit buy lightning last year when he was in town, let’s hope it’s true when they say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.
- We’ve got an all-new exclusive resident in town! Funkagenda joins us for six dates over the summer, setting up camp on the Sunset Terrace ready to put his stamp on it and make it his own.
- Chew The Fat! graduate from the Red Box and down into the deep dark Discoteca, hosting the room once a month with their very own wunderkid resident Foamo bringing the noise on their behalf.
- The mighty Motor City Drum Ensemble (try saying ten times after a shot of hierbas) proves he really is just one man rather than an actual ensemble, with a special guest slot in our Red Box via The Burlington Project who this year have broken their bank account to bring the very best in underground house and techno, Levon Vincent, Cedric Maison, Soulclap, Zev, Anton Zap, Mark Henning, jozif, Appleblim and Clive Henry amongst others all represent this year.
And if that’s not enough for you… well, perhaps you’re at the wrong party. Whingers, whiners and haters need not apply!
