“The season in Ibiza starts when the clubs open”. It is a phrase used by Ibizans that reflects reality to a large extent. There are two circumstances that affect the awakening of tourism every year: Easter (the closer to May, the better) and the season of the dance floors with its dozens of clubs of all kinds. The first depends on astronomical and ecclesiastical factors, but the openings, like so many other things, have been affected by the covid; the owners of the discotheques decided in the post-virus era to help deseasonalize the island economy and brought forward the start of their activity by one month. Before, everyone was on their own and many only worked in June, July and August. Now the business expands without limits in timelike the universe. The labor issue also plays a role: offering more months of work helps to build employee loyalty in a context of a housing crisis that threatens to devour the island. All in all, and despite the fact that Ibiza is gradually emerging from the somnolence it embraces in winter, the weekend of April 26th and 27th will blow everything out of the water.
It will be crazy, the opening of the biggest dance floor in the world. And with a novelty that already transcends the globe to storm the space: the arrival of [UNVRS] with its eagerly awaited opening on May 30. A ‘hyperdiscotheque’ that, according to its managers, Grupo Empresas Matutes and The Night League, will revolutionize everything. Again, because Ibiza is characterized by its capacity for resilience, for reinventing itself to come back stronger. The first emporium was founded by former minister Abel Matutes and the second company by Yann Pissenem, a visionary, a genius for many, who is behind, together with the wealthiest and most influential family of the island, which provides the properties, a money-making machine: Ushuaïa Ibiza, and Hï, the nightclub located in the former Space.
For lovers of nightlife, the best techno and the romanticism of the discos, the history of the Ibizan party is full of legend. [UNVRS] occupies the space of what used to be Privilege and, several light years ago, the mythical Ku, scene of unforgettable scenes such as the performance of Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury for Barcelona 92 and declared for years the largest nightclub in a universe that now threatens to conquer the new creation of Matutes and Pissenem. Thanks in good measure to a risky marketing prodigy: they presented the new creature to the world with a fake video of a UFO flying over the magical rock of es Vedrà, which later underpinned a visit to the construction site of the new building [UNVRS] none other than the Prince of Bel Air, the American actor and rapper Will Smith. The testimony of this visit has accumulated tens of millions of views on social networks.
Meanwhile, the rest of the stars are getting ready to welcome the thousands and thousands of clubbers that will land this summer in Ibiza. Amnesia, Pacha, DC-10, Eden or Es Paradis and all the offer associated to the night and the day of the magic island (Lío, Blue Marlin, Ibiza Rocks, Club Chinois, Playa Soleil, Hard Rock, OD Hotels, Pikes, O Beach, to give just a few examples…) will try to surprise, one more year, their acolytes. For what is also announced a bloody underhand war between all these locals to take the best djs.
Three out of ten euros
The importance of this offer is such that represents about 30% of the GDP of the island of Ibiza. This means that out of every ten euros generated by Ibizan tourism, three come from the dance floors. Although it is an estimate because the real figure of what generates the entire productive fabric of Ibiza is not known. But an approximate calculation can be made. Namely: Ibiza represents one fifth of the Balearic economy, which closed 2024 with a GDP of 42,084 million. From the last percentage it is necessary to take out between 35 and 40% for the discotheques, without taking into account the rest of the offer. Do the math. This industry is based on that, on stratospheric figures. According to data provided by José Luis Benítez, manager of the employers’ association that groups many of them, Ocio de Ibiza, the discotheques, without counting the rest of the night and daytime leisure (beach clubs) employ about 3,000 people to be able to attend to a total capacity of about 33,000 souls. On a night in August, the strongest month of the summer for the islands, the big ones can move more than 30,000 customers in constant rotation. “It’s one of the secrets that make the island the best tourist destination in the world: having the best venues in so little space,” notes Benitez proudly. A small universe that tries to replicate every year all over the world, whether in Mykonos, Las Vegas or the Arab countries, the new mecca of entertainment in its bid to whiten its image.
The influence of Ibizan discotheque leisure is such that it is enough to look at the DNI of the new entrepreneurs. For example, the Pacha empire, not counting Lío, has been in the hands for a couple of years of the Indian businessman based in Dubai Kabir Mulchandani, who is ranked 1,646 in the list of great fortunes of Forbes and who paid 302 million euros for the empire of the two cherries, both hotels and nightclubs.
There are few clouds over the starry nightclub sky. Barring the risk posed by a sudden, but unlikely, change in tourism tastes. Since not even the lack of housing threatens this sector, for now. Benítez slips one of the keys: high salaries and succulent tips. Every year there are gifts of thousands, even tens of thousands of euros from millionaires to the employees of some local. The sector has confidence in the fight of the insular Administration, the Consell, against the illegal tourist rent, in whose emptiness the housing in the island is literally lost. “We are not a sector that suffers excessively” the lack of housing, benítez acknowledges. But he warns: “It is a very serious problem”. Meanwhile: The show must go on… One more summer.
[UNVRS] pre-sale sold out
“Pre-sale sold out. General tickets are now on sale. Run so you don’t miss out”. This is the message sent yesterday by the discotheque [UNVRS]which in just a few hours sold out the presale tickets for its opening on May 30. Just a few days ago the club’s managers announced that pre-sale tickets were going on sale on April 15, with somewhat special prices, and in just a few hours they have already sold out. “An unprecedented demand,” says the club, which no longer has tickets at 100 and 120 euros (with bus service included). Right now, the cheapest ones that can be purchased on the website of [UNVRS] cost 140 euros per person, to which an additional 100 euros (99.99 euros) can be added for an extra five drinks. Prices that are on par with those of Guetta’s opening on June 13.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.