03/10/08: Space Closing Party

You know one of the (many) things I love about Ibiza is that you can potentially go to the same club, seven nights in a row and have a completely different experience each time. But after a season of indulging in such behaviour on a nightly basis, even I have to admit that it starts to get just a little same old same old after 18 weeks, give or take a few.

But the Space closing party is a completely different kettle of fish, or dance floor of clubbers or whatever metaphor you’d like to insert here. Forget décor and DJs – today (and tonight) is all about dance floor. One huge, gigantic, colossal, mammoth, enormous, epic dance floor. As was the case with the opening, the Space car park ditches its regular look of asphalt and vehicles in favour of stages, bars, DJs, dancers and of course, an 18 000 person capacity dance floor.

So it comes as no surprise that the Space Closing is the hottest ticket in town this week and when the rainclouds that had been lingering over Ibiza town for the past few days seemed to magically clear as Space threw open its doors at the special time of 12pm, Miss W had to wonder whether the powers that be at Space had sold their soul in order to guarantee the perfect party.

The blue skies and warm weather ensured the car park filled up fast, as people made the most of their last chance to dance in one of the world’s best clubs – for eight more months at least. The Space Closing is also traditionally the one day of the year that pretty much each and every worker on the island (except the Space staff, obviously!) is given the day off and encouraged to party. It’s also the last time many of them will see each other, as island numbers start dwindling from tomorrow, so it’s like a giant farewell of sorts and there were so many Ibiza faces on hand, I'm not even going to begin to try and list them!

With a line-up to end all line-ups – and by this I mean the who’s who of every club on the island, not just those who’ve played at Space – there was something for everyone, from the most die-hard minimal tech fan to those who love funky vocals or old school classic progressive style. Miss W has to give big props to Steve Lawler, who wowed the car park with an electrifying set, despite the fact he had a troupe of dancers dressed in gorilla costumes dancing beneath him at one point – surely a big distraction!

Though Miss W was given one of the rare access all areas wristbands meaning she could hang out behind the DJ booth or to the side of the stage, today she decided to get among the thick of things, front and centre of the outdoor dance floor – I mean, that’s what clubbing is all about isn’t it? While it’s nice to get preferential treatment and rub shoulders with the VIPs and artists, sometimes you just can’t beat a proper eight hour rave session with your pals…

THE LOWDOWN
THE GOOD: The amazing live displays from Ibiza performance group – and Space regulars - Foc I Fum. Moving amongst the dance floor as well as on stage and in the air, it was such a refreshing change to have something to watch other than lasers. We loved the adorable elves with their glittering heart padlock and the cute bear who performed aerial tricks on a BMX – not sure how fitting this is for a nightclub but regardless, it worked a treat!
THE BAD: While Miss W doesn’t want to badmouth a certain DJ who recently won the award for best international DJ in his category, she has to wonder about whether he may have been slightly ‘off’ tonight? The makeshift mega-dance floor in Space’s car park seemed to suddenly clear out after about 15 minutes of banging, raucous music after a mind-blowing set from the previous DJ. Hmmm… or maybe he just wasn’t in his element?
THE GOSSIP: There were hushed whispers amongst the Space Closing veterans that numbers were down on previous years (although it still felt incredibly crowded to Miss W), blaming it on the fact the mammoth Amnesia closing had continued until after three in the afternoon, a week after it’s original scheduled date, meaning there weren’t as many fresh-faced punters fronting up at Space’s doors upon opening.