The home stretch…

With just a handful of parties to go, plenty of overtired workers getting ready to finish their summer jobs and return to reality, plenty of DJs swapping the clubs for studio time and a bunch of Ryanair workers getting ready to charge their last excess luggage fees for another year.

But for many of us here in Ibiza – the lucky few who stay on the island all year round, including Miss W Ibiza – the home stretch also feels like a new beginning. It’s like the lead up to Christmas, with excitement and even nervousness at the thought of having our island back to ourselves for approximately seven months (check out our new winter blog for news of special events, offers and more). But, as mentioned above, before we get our reward for working hard all summer long, there’s still the matter of the home stretch to overcome. See below for my schedule.

May the force be with me all this week. And with you…

1. Flower Power – una mas! The island’s original hippy party has always been a huge success in the otherwise commercial club but this season at Pacha has been even more than a roadblock. Which is why, of course, they’ve decided to throw one more fiesta before the summer is out, slotting in nicely this week to the Friday night slot left vacant by Pete Tong. Una mas? Si, por favor! I have my flares and flowers ready and waiting. Friday October 5, 2012: Buy tickets here.

2. Lady Gaga at Privilege. Well, that was a well-kept secret up until last week now wasn’t it? Even to this day, she’s still billed as a ‘surprise superstar guest’ but given that Supermartxe’s guest DJ is none other than Gaga’s tour DJ White Shadow, it’s not hard to guess who now is it? And aside from that, a certain ticket selling outlet spilled the beans on social media last week. I plan on being front and centre and taking Instagram snaps of the entire thing. Friday October 5, 2012: Buy tickets here. 

Oh dear. It seems in just the space of a week, poor ole Gaga got too tired to make the trip from Barcelona to Ibiza. Or perhaps ticket sales weren’t quite enough. Either way, that’s more hours at Flower Power for me!

3. Ushuaïa Closing Party. Oh Luciano. I’m going to miss you again come winter (though I might pop over to Barcelona soon as I see you’re playing at ElRow next weekend!) so I really am going to make the most of your final gig in my favourite venue this summer. SOB. Just add Reboot, Mirko Loco, Andrea Oliva, Uner, Frivolous and Julien Bracht live plus Onno, and it’s basically Cadenza by the sea… perhaps fuelling the rumours even further that Cadenza Vagabundos will be looking for a new home next year. Hmmm, we shall see. Saturday October 6, 2012: Buy tickets here.

4. Amnesia El Cierre. This party has a well-deserved reputation as the islanders’ closing party of choice, after past years have seen the club remain open until well after midday on Sunday mornings. Their closing party line-up this year is a bit of a shake-up compared to usual, with Amnesia seeming to have swapped Richie Hawtin for Steve Lawler, made this year’s Amnesia star Marco Carola their in-house DJ of choice (err, hello Sven?) and scored a major coup with the only Ibiza date this summer for the legendary Danny Tenaglia. My advice for this one – make a morning of it and start around 5am. Some sleep in between Ushuaia and Amnesia is the only way to survive the next few days unless you are a machine. Which I am not. Saturday October 6, 2012: Buy tickets here.

5. Cadenza Closing Party. Is this the last time we’ll see Luciano and his merry band of faux-gypsy followers in the hallowed halls of Pacha? That’s the word on the Ibiza streets, so you can be sure I’ll be there – as if I wouldn’t have been anyway! BYO eyeliner. Or guyliner, whatever you prefer. Sunday October 7, 2012: Buy tickets here.

6. Blue Marlin Closing. Now, I’m going to just come right out and say it, that I’m not a regular visitor to Blue Marlin. I don’t know, it just didn’t seem like my cup of tea a lot of the time. But this year, there were a few extra special parties that really grabbed my attention and all of a sudden, there I was at Blue Marlin! So it would be rude not to attend the closing, especially with a line-up as fat phat as this (and before anyone suggests it, no, I’m not referring to the size of said star DJs): Kerri Chandler, DJ Sneak and Reboot. And anyway, what else would you do in between the Cadenza closing and Space? Sleep?

7. Space Closing Fiesta. Just when I actually thought 2012 was the year that I’d miss the Space closing (because I was getting bored with it, if you can believe that), they totally won me back over with a line-up that is basically the best of Enter. Anyone who’s been following my blogs over the past season will know that they had me at RICHIE. Sunday October 7, 2012: Buy tickets here.

8. DC10 The Final Match. Oh my days, as we inch even closer to the finish line, the line-ups just get more and more outrageous and I can barely contain my excitement. All under one roof (well, two roofs and an outdoor terrace but you get my drift): DJs-of-the-month Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler, my new favourite DJ-crush-of-the-year DJ W!ld, DC10 legends Dan Ghenacia, Dyed Soundorom, Clive Henry and Tania Vulcano, the Italian connections of Davide Squillace and System of Survival, the original Crosstown Rebel Damian Lazarus, house legend Kerri Chandler and OMG did somebody say Richie? Kill me now, because surely I am going to die of excitement on the day. And the list goes on… not entirely sure about the artwork though. It’s like Viva Warriors but with football uniforms on… who the hell came up with that one?

New addition! (to make up for missing Gaga) 9. Sankeys 24. Parts 1 & 2. Just when you thought DC10 shutting up shop meant Ibiza clubbing was over, the new kid on the block has to puff out its chest and show us what he’s made of. You may remember the surprise major Sankeys closing last year, and 2012’s bumper Sankeys season means the Playa D’en Bossa Club has a roster of the who’s who of DJs (and their close DJ buddies) to chose from for their double whammy closer that features 24 DJs across two nights. ‘Special Guest 1, 2, & 3’ is not a ploy to just get bodies through the door – my sources have indeed confirmed who they are and OM to the G, I will not be missing this for anything! Tuesday October 8 & Wednesday October 9: Buy tickets here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

And I haven’t even mentioned any of the top-secret-yet-not-so-secret after parties yet! More on that next week…