As the builders push around the clock to have the new club Hi Ibiza ready to open on time, this week saw a concerted PR drive by the slick marketing team over at Ushuaia buildings to inform the public of progress at the club. A few selected media outlets were handpicked to deliver a carefully curated batch of Photoshoped designer images, that were full of style but lacking in substance. With less than a month to go to its Opening party, the club remains a building site and only its co owner, Yann Pissenem, could dare to weave his magic at such mediocre fare and with deft of hand, turn the iconic Sunset terrace into “The Magic Garden” without anybody noticing. Like a talented chef, the Frenchman can transform even the most basic of ingredients, into a meal fit for a King.
Pissenem has taken a more prominent PR role in Hi Ibiza than he has done with any other business venture in the past. What were regarded as underground DJ’s, are now citing Pissenem as the main reason they joined the fledgling club, which is rising like a Phoenix from the ashes of Space. The provision of a healthy remuneration package may have sweetened the medicine but it is hard not to ignore the allure of Hi on an island that likes shiny new things, especially those born of Ibiza. Is it the future direction of clubbing on the island? One feels its monolith presence is growing in Playa den Bossa, which like Columbus, is charting westward winds towards Las Vegas.
They say all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self evident. With such nostalgia and loyalty resting in the hearts of a generation who loved Space, it was to be expected that the new club would receive the obligatory ridicule and derision it did, much of it behind closed doors as there were not too many media outlets willing to vent it. While it was not violently opposed, it still has its critics, but even they are starting to accept that a new Empire is set to rise from the ruins of Space. How they respond to the challenge Hi has laid down, will be the defining moment for the island and its rich musical heritage. Ibiza rarely fails to excite and entice us and one feels that Hi Ibiza is here to stay and shake things up a bunch. Lets hope it does.
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