The power of the pink dot

Who’d have ever thought that a little pink dot could cause so much hype and excitement in Ibiza? Well, for starters, anyone who’s familiar with my blog – and my ongoing obsession with Luciano and my newfound love for Richie Hawtin – not to mention the legions of Cadenza and Enter fans who’d been eagerly awaiting the ‘top secret’ line-up announcement for September 13 at both Ushuaïa and Space. Enter.Cadenza. Cadenza.Enter. Whatever way you look at it, it just seems so… right… up my alley!

Of course, I was beside myself with excitement for the entire week leading up to the double header event. Please allow me to walk you through the proceedings as I relive the magic of the pink dot…

[Some photos by Sofía Gómez Fonzo and others unashamedly nicked from Richie Hawtin’s Facebook page among others!]

1. It started with a little comic. A tongue-in-cheek flashback to the shared history of our heroes (sorry Sven, I’ve relegated that title to someone else from hereon in) and the very first viral hint as to the merger ahead. Ahh, those were the days, when Luciano sported the sexy handlebar moustache and Richie played seven-hour back-to-back sets with the DC10 gang. My heart leapt.

2. Then came the video. Richie Hawtin’s Enter.Pool videos have been a constant source of entertainment for me this season. Cheesy? Sure. But cute nonetheless. And definitely different to what every other club promoter in the world does with their promo videos, that’s for sure. It’s like techno comic relief! So from the minute our Rich started waffling on about loving the colour pink (just like me!), I knew this was going to be a pretty darn special edition. But don’t just take my word for it, watch it for yourself. As you may imagine, my heart soared.

3. The flyers began to appear. Knowing my fondness for all things Luciano, a clued-up member of the Ushuaïa team flippantly passed the first flyer under my nose on the Friday night before the party. So fresh you could smell the pink ink drying. So exciting I quickly stashed it in my bag to add to the pinboard – not a shrine, honestly it’s not – behind my desk. It was well and truly official. Enter would be sharing a stage with Cadenza at Ushuaïa and vice versa later at Space. The signature Enter black dot was pink for this momentous occasion. My heart skipped a beat – a techno one of course.

Of course, no one was buying the silly question marks against the headliners… Club politics at work perhaps, remembering there is that other club our Luci is heavily involved with too…

4. They built a tunnel between the clubs. Well, actually, they built two, due to the fact even local powerhouses like Space and Ushuaïa can’t stop traffic just for one party, so there was a pink tunnel leading out from Ushuaïa to the pedestrian crossing, with a matching black tunnel starting on the other side and leading to Space. You’ve gotta love our boys and their concept. The flyer said building musical bridges with friends, but I guess technically a tunnel was a bit more practical for one night. My heart was aflutter.

5. The pink promo went full steam ahead. The geniuses behind the Enter marketing and promotions got hold of those quirky Vagabundos and had them pinked out and back on the streets of Ibiza in no time. We’re talking t-shirts (where’s mine?), posters, flyers, costumes… and (my favourite element) even the famous black dot Enter temporary tattoos were given a vibrant makeover for the week. The entire island was in full pink mode – you could have been mistaken for thinking it was gay pride week in some parts – and I for one couldn’t have been more excited. My heart was full of joy.

6. Even the ticket prices were intertwined – and affordable! In keeping with Hawtin’s power to the people type policy in 2012, the clubs offered a two-for-one ticket offering entry to both clubs for just 70€. When you think about another party across town that charges the same just for entry to one on a Thursday night, that’s amazing value – and even more incentive to attend both parties of course. It’s at this point that I would take my hat off to whoever signed off on this incentive, as it would have been oh so easy to charge double and run their hands together in gleeful greed as the entry queues continued down the street (although I’m sure the amount of money going over the bar in each club would have lined the coffers sufficiently anyway). Oh, and spare a thought for anyone who actually worked in either club on the day – with the amount of desperate calls/texts/emails/posts/tweets/psychic messages I was receiving for guest list requests, (impossible – luckily for me, I had a trusty old press pass), I can only imagine how it must have been. My heart bleeds.

The golden ticket – or pink as the case may be. Not that I needed one!

Now THAT’S the ticket. Well, press pass.

7. The big (pink) day arrived. Staying put at my desk until 5pm felt a little like a kid on Christmas Eve – thankfully I had plenty of Richie Hawtin and Luciano Soundcloud mixes to get me in the mood – and as for concentrating! Impossible! Basically, I spent most of the day trying to think what I would wear – for those who are wondering, OF COURSE I opted for pink and black, accessorized with pink dot tattoos, it would have been rude not to – and also (between you and me) wondering if I really did have the stamina to surivive both parties. I have a history of crashing and burning with overexcitement you see. My heart was pounding with nervous excitement.

8. Cadenza.Enter at Ushuaïa. Thankfully, the aforementioned press pass meant I could bypass the ridiculously long queue of people clamouring/begging/pleading to get in to the famous open-air venue, as I could hear the Latin-esque rhythms fused with techno beats thundering across the airwaves, through the pink lasers and over the pink neon signs into the Playa d’en Bossa atmosphere. After a quick battle through the surging crowds – seriously, this felt bigger and better than the opening party – I decided it would be better to be up on stage, a little closer to my boys who were TOTALLY having a serious bro-mance as they played for hours. Pink streamers flew from overhead, dancers clad in pink tulle and lace writhed across the stage, but for I only had eyes for Luciano and Richie. It was just like old times. But with pink hair. My heart was seriously about to implode.

9. Enter.Cadenza at Space. After Richie made his exit from the Ushuaia stage, although I wanted to stay until the end, I also really really reeeeally wanted to make the most of the Enter.Sake experience (aka, stalk Richie) at Space before the main party was in session. So across the road we went – unfortunately without being able to Enter the tunnels, which weren’t being opened until Ushuaïa had closed (although thankfully, White Ibiza photographer Sofía Gómez Fonzo stuck around to capture all the pink and black acrobatics on camera for me – thank you!) but it did mean we completely missed the ensuing queues, which I heard took up to two hours to get in. That’s dedication. But I digress. So, after crossing over to the Dark Side, with my first (of many) Minus sake cocktail in hand, I immersed myself in the world of Enter, which had undergone a pink transformation all the way down to pink dots on toilet cubicle doors, pink lasers and even metallic pink confetti sprayed out of cannons onto the crowd when our heroes were finally reunited on stage in the mighty Space Discoteca. My boys played back to back (let me just say the fusion of techno, minimal, organic house and pretty girly anthemic beats was my dream come true, but I’ll leave the musical reviews to other websites) until around 7.30am to a crowd that showed no signs of slowing down. My heart felt as though it was going to explode out of my chest (though that may have been the Red Bull).

10. Exit. The end. It’s over. Fast forward to today, and I feel like partying will never be the same (although rumours of a 2013 merger between the two brands are already doing the rounds – Enterbundos? Cadenter?). I have nothing left to give. What will I ever look forward to (apart from the forthcoming Enter and Cadenza closings) again? My heart is breaking and my pink dot tattoo is still refusing to wash off. Seriously.