Part 2 – Farewell Space Ibiza

And you know what that means – the last ever party at Space Ibiza, as we know it. And more tears being shed as I write today’s blog. We’ve said goodbye to Glitterbox at Space. We’ve bid farewell to Sundays at Space (though we already technically said goodbye a few years ago when We Love Sundays called it a day). We’ve said adios to La Troya at Space. Afterlife is over, short and sweet (or dark) as it was. ONYX too (what WAS that all about?). Elrow knocked their closing out of the park last weekend and if you didn’t cry like a big bald baby as the final bars of The Doors’ ‘This is the end’ reverberated over the Discoteca at the hands of the king of Space, Carl Cox, well you just can’t be human. But this is something else. This IS the end.

The concept this year was Club 27, as Space Ibiza’s end has come as it turns 27, just as many of the world’s famed musical heroes passed away before their time at the same age – think Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones and Amy Winehouse. And speaking of musical heroes, there are well over 100 DJs listed on the line-up and surely as I type, each and every one of them is currently plotting and planning their own last Space Ibiza set, trying to find the perfect final track to sum it all up. Mine would be Layo & Bushwacka’s Love Story – you don’t get much more of a Space anthem than that. Perhaps I should send a group email to the below list and see if there are any takers?

Wow. And they say there are more to be announced! At this rate, it seems like they’ll all get to play a 15-minute set.* But seriously – who will be dropping the final track? Carl Cox, of course… the pressure! What time will it actually carry on until? And will the general public just sit down and refuse to leave? #occupyspace could become a thing. Let’s MAKE it a thing. Readers of my previous lament may remember I wrote about my first ever Space Opening experience with my very good friend Miss G. She’s currently packing her suitcase and getting ready to jet into Ibiza especially for the occasion. As are thousands and thousands of other people from all corners of the globe, who just can’t bear the thought of this party taking place without them. I can’t imagine when Pepe Rossello transformed a humble convention centre into a nightclub in 1989 he would have envisioned having such a profound effect on so many people’s lives. Millions, surely. Me, definitely *wipes another tear away*. Perhaps it should be Pepe himself who chooses the last track to float across those hallowed airwaves. Frank Sinatra’s My Way perhaps?

So here we are. Three sleeps to go. The enormous Flight Club stage is currently under construction in the car park. History is in the making. As we prepare to enter an era in Ibiza without the greatest nightclub in the world, I find myself lost for words (for once) to sum up how I feel, so I leave you with the words of the great W. Axl Rose** – where do we go now? RIP SPACE IBIZA 1989 – 2016 *This is 100% not true. With six arenas and probably over 24 hours of operation, everyone will get their fair share of time on the decks! ** If you’re too young to understand the reference, you probably weren’t at Space in its heyday. Ask Google.