Last weekend saw BBC Radio 1 return to Ibiza for 2022 to celebrate its renowned Dance Live weekend. With two years out due to the pandemic, it's safe to say that lost time was definitely made up for.
Stopping at a number of Ibiza's most beloved parties at multiple island clubs and covering over 70 uninterrupted hours of dance music, the energy this time round exceeded even the busiest of past years.
All of your favourite R1 hosts flew in for the special occasion, including Pete Tong, Danny Howard, Arielle Free and Sarah Story, with them all performing live at at least one event over the weekend.
What is widely regarded as the busiest weekend of summer, it was all go for the Ibiza Spotlight club team, as we avidly followed the R1 team in close proximity across the three days. From their very own live studio in Café Mambo where they broadcast from each evening, to being behind the decks with Pete Tong at Ushuaïa, we covered a lot of ground.
FRIDAY | DEFECTED | EDEN
To kick off the weekend, Radio 1 took over Defected's Friday slot at Eden in San Antonio. With exclusive performances from Danny Howard and Arielle Free (who even managed to sneak in her usual residency slot at Hï Ibiza for David Guetta's Future Rave), as well as Jansons, LP Giobbi and a spectacular closing set from John Summit.
We had never seen Eden so full. The club was jam-packed until close and there was no space on the dancefloor to be seen, as well as a packed out DJ booth from open till close.
Backstage, Master Summit lived up to his reputation for not only being a bit of ladies man, but by drinking everybody else under the table. Highlights from his set were broadcast the next day on R1's dance show, which you can listen back to here.
SATURday | ANTS | Ushuaïa
Having left late (or should that be early?), we dusted ourselves down to tackle the next leg of the weekend as R1 took to ANTS for a day to night hype train. The line-up was stacked, with Andrea Oliva b2b Hot Since 82, Richy Ahmed, Pete Tong and Groove Armada all playing.
We got down nice and early to dance at the back stage. Jamie Roy set the tone, before it was Monki's turn to take things up a level. The sun was pretty merciless as it beat down, but frequent deployment of the CO2 cannons cooled us down.
We strategically positioned ourselves right in its path to get a blast hit square in the face. Refreshing.
Elsewhere, back in the R1 studio at Café Mambo, Arielle Free took over Radio 1's Dance Anthems until 19:00, where she played the sunset set.
If you haven't seen Arielle play yet, you need to. Her infectious energy, rhythm and sprightly dancing, not to mention impeccable tune selection, were truly mesmerising to watch.So passionate about what she does, it was quite a sight to behold.
Afterwards, Danny Howard and Claptone played a special back-to-back for the pre-party to the latter's The Masquerade residency.
Later, Andrea Oliva and Hot Since's set was broadcast live on Radio 1, which saw a stream of constant bangers including RÜFÜS DU SOL, Tori Amos and Hans Zimmer.
After Ushuaïa, it was a question of what to do with the rest of our evening? Sure, we could go to bed to get our head down, but that felt like the boring option. When in Rome...
Before we knew it, we were whisking our way to Pikes in a private transfer with the rest of the R1 crew. Once there, we spent a lot of time chewing the fat on the Sunset Terrace, before disappearing into Freddies and losing ourselves in smoke-machine-filled disco.
SUNDAY | PYRAMID | AMNESIA
By the time Sunday rolled around, our heads were seriously lagging, but Radio 1 still had one ace left to play. The weekend closed down in style at Amnesia, which saw the most underground line-up of the programme for Pyramid.
Featuring hard hitting acts such as Dax J, Adam Beyer, Sam Paganini, Raxon and Cristoph, it threw the exclamation mark down and confirmed R1's return to Ibiza was an unprecedented success.
For next summer, it seems a foregone conclusion that, not only will R1 be back, but it will build on the foundations put down in 2022.
We're going to need a lie down after all of that...
BBC Radio 1 Dance Live weekend may well be over for another year, but there's still plenty of parties happening between now and the end of summer 2022. You can find all the latest news on our magazine homepage and full club listing on our definitive party calendar.
ADDITIONAL WORDS | by Stephen Hunt
