When your mouth is agape for a good few minutes of your first experience of a fiesta, you'd likely register that you're all set for an exhilarating spin, from start to finish.
Hearing so many gushing words about WooMooN's debut season in 2016 – particularly from fellow writer Ruby Munslow in her own review – puts you in a hyperalert state, especially as you're anticipating how it'll kick up some dust to roll on from where it left off.
From the moment you visit Cova Santa, which is an epic venue that's nestled in Ibiza's countryside, you can see that this is a prime spot for a party that's known to truly embrace Ibiza's free spirit, especially as a portion of your time here will likely be spent in the open air before it carries on indoors.
Once you've slipped in the door and are into the interconnected maze-like grounds, you quickly find that this is a place for people watching. Island locals and tourists of many ages, Ibiza legends, children, mothers and fathers, healers, chefs, performers and models – you findd human inspiration everywhere.
I love food. Eating gives me pleasure. I like talking about food, watching videos about food, leering at food, whispering to food, smelling food, but most of all, I like digesting food. Come here hungry, or at least with a hint of an appetite. WooMooN has food for the soul, and boy, sometimes you need that to fuel a good dance in the hills. From fruit salad, pumpkin humous and tabbouleh, to vegetable quiche, pizza, gyozas, aloo gobi and dahl - you might find yourselves salivating uncontrollably, much like myself.
After spooning in aloo gobi and dahl, with a hibiscus frozen margarita washing it down, we headed into the heart of the action on the Terraza. With the sun now making its nightly descent, the dance floor area was mobbed with writhing bodies in a state of collective celebration. It was really busy, and it's likely most of the following weeks will be the same. So, you've got to be willing to put in a bit of effort to get yourself to the centre of it, but with everyone smiling and in various elated states, it's well worth making human contact to snake yourself through.
Mimi Love – a DJ whose artist page tells you that her sound is electronically nomadic and centred on bringing people back to earth – was the one scattering her sound through the airwaves. Not that the music is any way secondary, but it simply elevates the pockets of activity that are going on elsewhere. To a synth-laden up-tempo, disco-tinged beat, my eyes were drawn to a shamanic clown who was seen spraying water (or professional aura cleaner if their video is to be believed) and sticking miniature love hearts to partygoer's foreheads. You could also watch from below as dancers ascended metal structures, and Tanit – an Ibiza legend – was seen subtly injecting fervour through the attentive crowd as he stood elevated above.
This is a party where you can immerse yourself with throngs of people who're on a constant path of consciously evolving as people – mentally, physically and spiritually. I'm very much open to it more so now than ever, and it rubs off on you, especially when you get a distinct sense of inner peace, passion and genuine joy from the people around you.
As I came out the indoor dance floor I noticed a little booth to my left and was instantly drawn to what was inside. The Lightforce Centre from Shayoon and Alexander Mendeluk - a couple from L.A who made the move to Ibiza in January this year - are adding something unique to WooMooN this year with their aura photography booth.
Once inside and seated, you put your hands on the bio magnetic plate sensors that read your energy in that moment, and it will capture what you're feeling right there and then. The sensors, which are hooked up to a camera – one of only 2,000 cameras made in the world - will then give you a polaroid from which Alexander will read your aura. This was an incredible personal experience, and one which I´d definitely recommend.
After this, I was back upstairs to the Terraza for German DJ and producer Rampue. This isn't the first time he's played, and in a short promo video filmed last year he said that WooMooN was “some new kind of community, maybe some fantasy, like a perfect community.” He understands the beating heart of this place, and had us moving to atmospheric, hypnotic electronica.
As he continued to trip us out, a performer on the roof spoke to the crowd: “If the question is what am I doing here? If the world we live in is mad, on which foot should I stand. Ladies and gentlemen this is your entertainment.” And from there our anticipation was at peak level as dancers could be seen contorting their bodies, and a giant balloon full of confetti was delivered to the centre of the crowd, and when it popped, we imploded with rapture. What a moment.
You don't come to WooMooN solely for the DJs. You come for the overall experience and embedded in this is a whole lot of love. This party does not need any words of promotion to succeed in its second year; it's all already there, but for those who haven't yet given their hearts and minds to WooMooN, this might just encourage more to do so.
PHOTOGRAPHY l Valya Karchevskaya
