After slipping through the pink tunnel from Ushuaïa and over the road into the black tunnel leading into Space and past the enormous queues of eager, pink and black dotted clubbers, you couldn’t help but feel that a ‘normal’ night of partying after this, without hype, secret line-ups and custom built installations and entrances - just won’t cut it anymore.
Playing back to back in the main room (or the ENTER. room as it’ s known on Thursdays) Richie Hawtin led the way with a minimal techno tracklist which was even deeper and more enticing than usual. Luciano looked extremely comfortable as he dug deep into his bag of tracks alongside his friend and pulled out some of his own techno crackers that probably haven’t been laid out for a while, and together, although they played it a little safe for the first two hours, were soon rolling together and throwing in the odd snatch of Luciano’s Latin laced style and Richie’s cutting-edge, futuristic flips.
ENTER.Cadenza did something that’s never been done before in Ibiza and it was a spectacular night which drew two venues together and two very excited DJs who had created a concept which reminded the island that spontaneity, togetherness and music should always rule over hefty price tags and VIP status.
Throughout the whole season, Richie has taken the role of the DJ more than one step further than the rest. He wanted his new party to be much more than just another DJ behind a booth. Hence with the ENTER. concept he wanted people to be enveloped, surprised, to be next to his supporters enjoying the same music, to create new experiences, fuse music with technology, introduce them to sake and a new way to pre-party, and for everybody to just lose themselves inside the black, intense box he had created. And that’s exactly what he’s done but as the season has progressed, his ideas metamorphosed into something bigger with limitless possibilities – hence the joining of ENTER. and Cadenza.
Back to the night itself, in the ENTER.Sake room, Hito was laying down an eclectic Asian inspired techno set. Suiting the dynamics of this intimate room perfectly where people tend to go for a lighter vibe, chill-out and talk to friends, it’s also the right place to recharge energy levels before hitting the intenseness of ENTER. and ENTER.Kehakuma again.
In to ENTER.Kehakuma and the beat was most definitely funky. Making way for Magda and her multi-layered elements of disco, Detroit and stripped back to basics raw beats, this girl has without a doubt secured her place in the 2012 hall of fame and it’s not hard to see why people follow her. As the rest of the notable headliners - who were Marc Houle, Troy Pierce, Heartthrob, Hobo, Valentino Kanzyani, Reboot (live), Andrea Oliva, Remo, Matthew Hawtin and Luke Hess (live) – each brought their individual styles to the table of the history making event, by the time we were into the last hour, almost every artist was behind the booth with Richie and Luciano sharing the final moments of the momentous occasion.
This one will never be forgotten.