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Ronald Ravin'
Supreme tranceaddict



Registered: Sep 2005
Location: San Francisco
Ibiza 2013 Review

Wrote this a long time ago, meant to do some more editing, but fuck it, it's waited long enough so As promised here is my Ibiza 2013 review. This was my third time going to Ibiza, after 2009 and 2012. Things change things stay the same. Some things better, some worse. Still my favorite place in the world every summer! Even met a couple of TA's along the way!

Vegas the new Ibiza, please. The best day in vegas can't beat the worst in ibiza unless you win big at the tables and pay for your whole trip. Vegas has always been the place for washed up celebrities to go make some cash off tourists and that's still just as true.

All the photos I took http://www.flickr.com/photos/914778...57635640804255/

Videos embedded below, sorry about some crappy audio but you get the idea

Saturday 10 August
Just went and checked out the bars in San Antonio's west end. If you haven't been there, bars in ibiza are more like mini clubs with no cover, cheap drinks, and the whole works sound, lighting, and a DJ.



Sunday 11 August
Full on Ferry at Eden
Last year I saw Ferry at Judgment Sundays, this year Ferry took over the whole night and Judgment Sundays is now Judgment Fridays. This was pretty much what you would expect, trouse. If you don't like trouse you wouldn't like this. I like it when it's well executed, and this was pretty good as trouse goes. Michael Woods did a back to back set with ferry. Not really that memorable of a night, Eden is a nice club by any standard but it's nowhere near the caliber of the bigger clubs on ibiza, and none of the music really stuck in my head like the next three nights. In fact looking back on all the videos i took, which I generally only do for songs i actually like, most of them are quite cheezy. I'd skip it next time and do something else Sunday.



Monday 12 August
Armin van Buuren solo at Privilege
Last year I went to ASOT at privilege and it was my favorite party of the whole time, I didn't get to see armin the lineup was Markus Schulz, Cosmic Gate, Tydi, and Dash Berlin. Slept through cosmic gate (literally slept through it, not like their set was that boring ), Dash was better than usual, Markus and Tydi were really good. This year armin only. I didn't know it but found out right before he was recording part of the set for Universal Religion 7.

Armin played a great set. He didn't play any fluffy stuff and pretty much stuck to trance the entire time, there was no like 1 or 2 hours of trouse and fluff at the beginning he just started off with some pretty banging progressive trance and went the whole way. Really liked most of what I heard of what was going on UR 7, definitely going to pick that up. After that, he played a set loaded with great classic tracks like 7 cities and 1998. There were no bad tracks any time in the night that made me want to leave the room, i thoroughly enjoyed all 6 and a half hours and could have stayed much longer. Also privilege has the #2 sound system I've ever heard and a great laser show.



Tuesday 12 August
Carl Cox at Space
Last year I bought a ticket for this party for 40 euros, and proceeded to crash out at 18:00 and accidentally sleep for 12 hours through the whole thing i was so sleep deprived. If only I knew what I was missing I would have been there. This year I made sure to get enough sleep that this wouldn't happen, and it exceeded its reputation. I had never seen Carl Cox before, I knew he would be good, but I was really surprised by just how amazing he was. I've very rarely ever seen a DJ play a crowd like that. Like a fiddle, and they were loving every minute. Thats what it takes to be a living legend. The guy is 51 and having just as much of a blast as the crowd for his whole 5 hour set.

As for the club itself, there are many good reasons why Space is considered the #1 club in the world now. For one thing it has 4 rooms of great DJs, and each room has its own character. The sunset terrace is just a great place to chill out after rocking it in the main room or terrace. Two of the Djs played Out of Space by Prodigy, classic track, you don't hear enough of that stuff in clubs. On to the best reason, the sound. Definitely the best sound systems I've ever heard in my life, that's sound systems plural. The main room and the terrace just have the most perfectly tuned funktion one sound so every corner of the room is covered in chest thumping bass, while being not at all harsh to the ears.

The main room also had one of the best lighting shows ive seen, lasers, lights, fog, all perfectly timed with the music, the guys running the show were really getting into it. The crowd and overall vibe are great, everyone is there for the same reason, the best music and getting down, there is no pretention here whatsoever, nobody cares how good lookin you are or how many bottles you can afford. The club is big enough that even with a large crowd there is always "space" to just chill out and listen to the music. Fucking GO, JUST GO.



Wednesday 13 August
Wisdom of the Glove at Pacha
Went here expecting some tripped out techno, and got some really tripped out techno. My favorite techno DJ Maayan Nidam was opening, and she played an awesome set, which was extended by 45 minutes because the next DJs were not prepared to play at their starting time. They finally went on and were pretty good, but their set got cut short and they were clearly not happy. Hey it's Guy Gerber's night and you should be ready to play on time. I have to admit Guy Gerber is not really my style of techno, he did play some really good stuff but I was getting sleepy by the end, and there was some really crazy stage show going on in the club that I can hardly make any sense out of.

As for the club, this was my first time going there, the sound is very good, but I would call it third or fourth out of Space, Privilege, and Amnesia. Not sure if it's just me but I really prefer funktion ones over anything else. Thats still as least as good as any sound i've heard outside Ibiza. It has a really cool chillout smoking terrace on the roof, get some fresh air, sit down, eat some food, yes they do have food and it is reasonably priced and pretty tasty.

But we haven't got to my favorite part of the night. That happened in the much smaller funky room, the second room which is located between the main room and the terrace. To close out the night, Maayan Nidam and Sonja Moonear did a back to back set of really funky techno that was one of my favorite techno sets ever. It might not be everyone's style but that's the kind of techno i can sit there and listen to for 7 hours like armin or carl cox.

Lee Burridge closed out the night, due to being stuck in the funky room I didn't hear much, but the few tracks I did hear at the end were very good and I didn't want to leave.




Thursday 14 August
I had one of the best nights of my life at Cream in 2009, that was the best night of that Ibiza trip by far. So I really want to like Amnesia and Cream but unfortunately when I went last year it had clearly taken a turn for the worse. The music on the terrace (Super You and Me) was intolerable, the place was WAY too crowded, I couldn't even get in during Paul van Dyk's set, Gareth Emery played a stinker and Giuseppe Ottaviani played a good set but not one of his better. Also they seriously downgraded the lighting in the club, in 09 they had all these full color lasers on the terrace and replaced them with a single green one, and also in 09 they were selilng nitrous on the dance floor for 5 euros a hit, not anymore. Nitrous is a horrible toxic drug that I cannot recommend in good faith for anyone to use ever, but i have to admit just for one night huffing it on the dancefloor was insanely fun.

I was hoping it would be better this year, but it was not to be. They upgraded the lighting and added a bunch of very impressive lasers in the main room, so the club itself, is still great by me. As for the terrace, I don't know what the lighting looked like because the music was so fucking bad I couldn't stand being in there for more than a minute. Mixmag terrace featuring Calvin Harris. I wouldn't expect something like that to be any good, but what a shit fest.

I was really there for Anjunabeats in the main room. Gareth Wyn opened and was cheesy. Above & Beyond played next, they played a decent set but not one of their better ones. The worst part was yet to come, Mat Zo. I've heard a lot of negative feedback about him, and I have to 100% totally agree. He was absolutely dreadful. The few tracks he played that I did like, I have heard 50 times in clubs over the past 4 years, and he has no clue about how to progress a set in track selection. He should stick to producing. I stuck it out to see what Norin & Rad were like, but their first few tracks didnt impress me and finally said, fuck it, i'm leaving early. Standards at Cream and Anjunabeats have gone WAY downhill. Anjunabeats parties in Miami at Nocturnal and Karu & Y for WMC were some of the best nights of my life and its sad where they've ended up. Next time at Amnesia I will check out Music On or Cocoon



The End, caught a flight out at 10 am to go to Amsterdam, so tired I cant remember the two flights at all I just crashed out the whole time, flight attendants had to wake me up, for LUMINOSITY . Which is quite a story in itself. Maybe I will get a chance to tell it sometime!

Last edited by Ronald Ravin' on Nov-27-2013 at 03:28

Old Post Nov-27-2013 03:21  United States
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PvDoBseSSioN
Ibiza Addict



Registered: Feb 2004
Location: here and there

awesome review!


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Old Post Jan-11-2014 01:50  France
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wildo
tranceaddict in training



Registered: Jan 2014
Location: edmonton

I joined just to write a response.
Great review, detailed, photos, videos, the whole review is great.

Planning a honeymoon trip with the wife this mid August and I hope to catch some anjunabeats and A&B along the way.

Just curious what are the prices of drinks and where did you stay???

Old Post Jan-14-2014 22:28  Canada
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Ronald Ravin'
Supreme tranceaddict



Registered: Sep 2005
Location: San Francisco

Thanks! Drinks at the big clubs are ridiculously expensive, starting at €8 for a bottle of water, €11 for a bottle of beer and up from there. the bars are always crowded too. fortunately if you're on less of a budget you could sneak a flask in or do cheap pregaming at some smaller bars where you can get a liter of beer for €4 or 5 in San Antonio, and like i said those smaller bars are basically mini-clubs all with good sound lighting and DJs so they're well worth your time.

For accommodations, first year I went I stayed in Playa den Bossa at Hotel Mare Nostrum, then San Antonio at Hotel Pacific Azuline and Hostal Mallorca the last 2 years. Playa den Bossa is somewhat more upscale and pricey but it's closer to all the biggest clubs and the airport. I prefer San An but there are certainly differing opinions. some people find San An trashy but there's a whole lot going on and it's cheaper so it works for me. By far the nicest was the Hotel Pacific and I got a pretty good deal on it somewhere around €90 a night. Hostal Mallorca and Mare Nostrum were cheaper around €50 or 60 but you get what you pay for. They were still perfectly acceptable, clean and fine service, just not with any but the most basic amenities. If you shop around ahead of time you can get good deals, prices may be going up year over year but still, rates are low overall considering where you are. I use booking.com

You probably won't be spending much time in your room except to sleep, so it isn't that important, but if I went again I would definitely spend extra for a hotel with AC and free wifi. I ended up spending a few hundred dollars in international data charges, which I could have avoided by renting a phone or SIM card, or not hanging out in my room surfing the internet, but I couldn't be bothered with the SIM and I was so wrecked at times it was hard to do much of anything else. So I basically ended up spending all the money I saved by getting a room without AC and data service on just data service. Sleeping is one of the hardest things to do there. AC makes it a much easier task and you definitely want to get your sleep so you don't sleep through carl cox.

Last edited by Ronald Ravin' on Jan-18-2014 at 05:55

Old Post Jan-16-2014 05:29  United States
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wildo
tranceaddict in training



Registered: Jan 2014
Location: edmonton

Hi Ronald,

I think we want to stay by the major clubs, restaurants, everything (since its our first time). Also, which beach area would be most populated with people playing volleyball (if any), and sun tanning etc?

Damn the prices are expensive for drinks! We definitely will pregame it if this is the case.. I didn't read your post correctly and thought Ibiza in general was cheap. But what you really meant was cheap was the smaller bars in san Antonio! woops/

Old Post Jan-23-2014 17:57  Canada
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PvDoBseSSioN
Ibiza Addict



Registered: Feb 2004
Location: here and there

yes pregaming is key.... the whole trip is expensive but totally worth it. It's an unbelievable experience!


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Old Post Feb-01-2014 03:50  France
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Ronald Ravin'
Supreme tranceaddict



Registered: Sep 2005
Location: San Francisco

Not sure about the beaches, I spend 80% of my time in a club or in bed, and 10% eating one meal a day or on a bus. Probably went to the beach once each trip. They are all nice though. I'm going again this year, but only for 4 nights. Doing Cocoon at Amnesia Monday; Carl Cox again Tuesday; Wednesday I don't know, maybe DC-10 because I've never been there or if they have something good at Privilege; Thursday ASOT during the day, not sure if I'll have any energy left for Thursday night but I'll try my best.

Im not sure Im too happy about ASOT moving to Ushuaia, as Ushuaia sounds really douchey, but maybe it won't be for ASOT and I'm glad it opens up my monday night because I've always wanted to go to Cocoon. Staying in Playa den Bossa this time for a few reasons, ASOT moving there, Space being the best club, it's next to the airport and I’m getting in late Monday and leaving early Friday. Not sure where I’d be going Thursday night now that Cream jumped the shark, I will only go to Cream if there is a killer lineup in the main room and terrace like they used to do, but the way things are going musically it will probably be even worse than last year's Mixmag and Anjunabeats.

Glad W&W are playing Together so hopefully they will be nowhere near ASOT or any other party I want to go to. Pacha is turning into a joke with two of the shittiest DJs two nights in a row. It is a CRIME replacing Wisdom of the Glove with Aoki's Playhouse. Not enough €€€ from the VIP I guess. I would go to Pure Pacha but I'm not there Saturday. Looking forward to the Privilege and DC-10 schedules anyway. This might be the last year for me as I’m getting too old for this shit and this new music is starting to sound bad.

Old Post Mar-19-2014 01:36  United States
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Ronald Ravin'
Supreme tranceaddict



Registered: Sep 2005
Location: San Francisco

Too funny. Cream lineups are out and there are great DJs almost every week. But guess who's playing when I'm there... A&b Gareth Wyn Mat Zo and Calvin Harris. Hahaha. Gotta love life's ironies. Anyway got to find something to do Thursday night.

Old Post Apr-02-2014 14:39  United States
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modthispny
Supreme tranceaddict



Registered: Aug 2009
Location: Glendale, CA

Ronald,

so i booked my flights for ibiza! will be there for a few days and then will go travel the rest of Spain.

staying at playa del bosse.

tue night we plan on doing hardwell at ushuia then carl cox afterwards(i guess ushuia ends at midnight?)

on wed were going to AOKI at Pacha, i know not the best music, but figured it will be a fun party and my friends arent too into techno. (going to do bottle service there)

and thur we continue our travels, sadly will miss ASOT

i've been doing some reading, looks like it's key to pre-party. we plan on buying liquor from the liquor stores, and are there cheap bars in playa del bosse or do we need to go to san antonio? is playa del bosse close to san antonio?

also, i know you've been a few times, what are some things/places that we have to do for sure? i definitely want to check out the sunset at cafe del mar..

thanks in advance

Old Post Apr-14-2014 22:49  United States
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Ronald Ravin'
Supreme tranceaddict



Registered: Sep 2005
Location: San Francisco

definitely sunset at cafe del mar - san antonio is a bit far but not too bad, iirc it's about a €40 20 min cab ride or €3 40-60 min bus ride. space and amnesia are my favorite clubs, i would say must do, but amnesia sucks when it's too crowded and when shit DJs take over, which is all too common an occurrence now. space is too big to get too crowded and they don't have shit DJs. once upon a time amnesia was the #1 club and never had shit DJs but now that honor goes to space. if aoki turns out to be too shite for you to deal with you could check it out, nothing is currently listed for wednesday nights there but i think it's usually the foam party. unfortunately i think paris hilton Djs that now, amnesia's standards have seriously gone downhill but it's still really cool just as a venue. Ive never actually made it to sunrise on the terrace but it must be pretty mad.

there are cheap bars in playa den bossa too just not as many as san antonio from what i remember. with the exception of space i haven't been there in 5 years though. i'm going in early july so if you're there after i'll let you know what i find. other than that, i've heard good things about free parties on the beach and at random bars, big DJs will often play there, for example saw ferry corsten at ibiza rocks and mark knight at one of the bars near cafe del mar all no charge, some years ago i heard armin played a free beach party on playa den bossa, but i missed that one. if you keep your ears out you might just see some ASOT Djs after all. i'd imagine boat parties are pretty cool too. I'm usually too wiped out for doing much during the day but there is plenty of stuff going on any time.

in surprising news, full on ferry has moved to SPACE friday nights. Wtf they finally have a trance party at space and i'm leaving the morning before? Well, I'm not sure I would call what was being played at full on ferry last year "trance" so I want to see the actual lineup before doing something crazy like changing my flight. At least they're also having ENTER thursday night so I have something to do instead of cream if i'm not too tired by then. I might just go all out at ASOT and call it a day though.

Last edited by Ronald Ravin' on Apr-17-2014 at 15:51

Old Post Apr-17-2014 15:42  United States
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