The great, the good and the glamorous gathered in Ibiza on Friday night for an opening night spectacular as the 2015 Glitterbox Ibiza season got under way in its new home, Space Ibiza.
With a line-up that positions legends of house music alongside the finest contemporary disco tastemakers and beyond, plus what can only be described as the hottest club dancers in the world, we were quickly enveloped into a fantastical world of gigantic, Carrol-esque mirrorballs in a hyper-colourful discotheque amidst a crowd seemingly primed to dance and sing and smile to great music.
Walking into Space was a mesmerising experience. We were greeted by the artist Mark Wardel’s stunning visuals in giant scale at the entrance, while, on the Sunset Terrace was a scene alive with enchanting, twinkling lights, myriad flecks of glitter reflecting from the many mirrorballs suspended around the room.
Kicking off proceedings, Simon Dunmore took a deep, groove-laiden, contemporary house and disco direction early doors. The consummate set builder, his expertly-crafted constructions never fail to be enjoyable, moving fluidly from The System’s You Are In My System to Purple Disco Machine’s forthcoming remix of Juan Maclean’s A Simple Design before dropping last season’s undisputed Glitterbox anthem Do You Feel The Same from Hercules & Love Affair.
Entering the Terraza felt like being transported to another dimension. We were struck by the sheer volume of colour, the mix of bright pinks and purples and impossibly large mirrorballs looming overhead, the Glitterbox logo cast in multi-coloured lights across the brick walls behind the booth and the haze of dry ice wafting across the dancefloor.
Joey Negro’s mix of disco and funk-fuelled house littered with ingenious edits, re-touches and remixes under his multitude of monikers had immense depth, with standout moments including Fonda Rae’s Over Like A Fat Rat plus the Claptone remix of Gregory Porter’s bluesy Liquid Spirit, along with the Frankie Knuckles-produced Where Love Lives: an undoubted highlight of the night.
The impossibly high-heeled performance crew Hot Heels (from the team behind Sink The Piunk) then made their entrance. Outrageous, camp East London cool is one way to describe it, duly delivered in a series of scintillating choreographed dance routines full of eye-watering splits, practically double-jointed pirouettes, thrusting twerks and high-velocity vogueing.
Following Joey Negro, New York House pioneer, Todd Terry, launched into a classic house set of epic proportions which ran the full range of his productions including the seminal remix of Everything But The Girl’s Missing, his Martha Washa and Jocelyn Brown vocalled-Keep On Jumpin’ and Something Goin’ On (In Your Soul). Mixing in his trademark cut-up, hip-hop-influenced style it was clear that the music has completely taken over.
Back on the Sunset Terrance, the mantel was picked up by DJ Pippi who threw down slab after slab of heavyweight vinyl for those who had found their groove in the cooler, open-sided environs or had stepped out of the Terraza for a breather. A veteran of 30+years DJing, Pippi was one of the men who defined what it meant to be a resident DJ in Ibiza and it felt like he had channeled all those years of experience of what this island is about into his set.
Finishing off the night in the Terraza were infamous London party outfit Horse Meat Disco before the house and disco edit maestro The Revenge. HMD's Jim Stanton and Luke Howard played a late night set of underground disco brim full of panache but nicely short on pretence. It captured exactly the right vibe for this point of the night as we were treated to hi-nrg Sylvester masterpieces such as Do You Wanna Funk to Donna Summer’s Bad Girls or the latest Crazy P side, Witch Doctor to the Italo house rarities that their London night is so known for, whilst The Revenge took matters more housey and deeper still as the night drew towards its close, with records like the Mike Dunn / RC Groove Project cut Do You Believe.
Barely into its second season, it feels that Glitterbox has the recipe for what is a classic Ibiza party just about right. Glitterbox is an anything-goes, all-inclusive gathering of all kinds of tribes. It’s the place where you’ll find a vital mixture of cool club kids alongside a glamorous, high-heeled international party set, seasoned island dwellers and disco hipsters with a shared love of the music all dancing to the same beat.
Watch out Playa d’en Bossa, watch out world: there’s a new party in town…Buy now your tickets for Glitterbox, every Friday at Space Ibiza.