Aside from a very busy New Year's schedule, Ibiza's super-clubs are on sabbatical now for winter. However, the island's global influence continues elsewhere in the world.
During the low-season, we bring you club reviews from Ibiza favourites at other party destinations from around the world.
First up, we ventured to London's east end, where Claptone's The Masquerade was holding court on the final weekend at Tobacco Dock with a Halloween Ball. Here's what went down at one of London's most cherished event spaces on the most haunted weekend of the year.
The Masquerade | Tobacco Dock | Saturday 29 October
New Year's Day 2014. London was about to have change thrust upon it.
Little did we know at the time, but clubbers present on that day would become part of London's clubbing history. The emergence of Tobacco Dock would prove the catalyst for a seismic shift in behaviour, as the era of the day party had begun.
Fast forward to Halloween 2022.
After throwing festival-sized parties here for the best part of a decade, seasoned promoter LWE is relinquishing its exclusivity rights with a final weekend of parties - and was intent on bowing out in dramatic effect. Claptone's The Masquerade had the honour of hosting.
Nobody puts on a show quite like Claptone. After bringing The Masquerade to city locations such as Electric Brixton and Printworks, he finally had his white gloves on the 6,500 capacity event space in docklands.
Many of the faces who had appeared at The Masquerade on Ibiza this summer were recalled for this spooky edition. Todd Terry, Jacques Lu Cont, Paul Woolford and Faithless were just a handful of the box office names on the bill.
The day's unseasonably mild temperature had a touch of the Mediterranean about it. Typically, this fixture would see groups of girls huddled around sharing body heat, as condensation formed on the breath. But not this year.
For the first time in the venue's nine year history, all four main dancefloors - The Great Gallery, the Ibiza-inspired Terrace, the Car Park and The Cavern - were deployed together.
Alongside the more modest Loft, hosted by event partners TicketSwap on this occasion, this tweaked format improved flow and dispersion of the crowd. No one floor felt overly packed, yet the atmosphere remained uncompromised. Attendees were the real winners here.
Early arrivals could have caught Tristan Ingram opening up The Terrace with his honed House selections, including Nick Curly and Dennis Ferrer's Defected classic, Underground. With sunlight pouring through the room's skylight, the space felt positively Balearic.
Just like every Halloween, London's clubbing contingent went to creative lengths in the wardrobe department. From face-paint, masks and contact lenses, right through to head-to-toe costumes, prosthetic limbs and liquid latex facial wounds - the effort was applause worthy.
Although only a few hours into proceedings, already the crowd was beginning to swell. Nobody wanted to miss any of the action. This was the hottest ticket in town on a super-packed calendar.
The doors to The Great Gallery opened at 14:00 on the nose and streams of clubbers immediately poured inside. Arielle Free, one of our Ibiza 2022 winners, had the distinction of opening the room and was in beast mode. It was exactly the energy the people demanded.
Telekinetic forces compelled us to stay locked inside The Great Gallery. Being the last weekend, it felt right that we should spend the majority of time in the cavernous main room. As darkness enveloped the east of London, Radio 1's resident Mr Nice Guy, Danny Howard was in control.
The onset of the night gave an energy boost to us and our fellow nocturnal creatures, as Danny dropped the Solomun remix of Kieran Hebden's Looking At Your Pager. The track had already proved a favourite of his this summer on Ibiza and the reaction was the same here.
Before the main event unfolded in The Great Gallery, there was time to escape to the dungeon-like depths of the building's Car Park for one last shuffle in the dark.
An echo of past Halloween shindigs at Tobacco Dock, ABODE pair Ellie Cocks and a freshly peroxide blonde GW Harrison went back-to-back for the old times.
Arguably the most iconic of all the dancefloors at the Wapping venue, frankly we couldn't imagine a closing weekend without the Car Park. We're beyond grateful that we got to experience it one final time.
Plainly closing duties for the day fell to our mysterious host and his distinct brand of hocus pocus. True to form, Claptone's thrilling finale contained many of his own edits, though on this occasion some of the more spooky iterations were clearly tailor-made especially for the day.
These are some of the many signature stamps that made The Masquerade Halloween Ball a non-stop thrill fest.
This was a fitting end to what has become one of London's great modern event spaces.
Knowing the industry as we do, it seems a foregone conclusion that some plucky promoter will take a shot at it sooner or later. Though if LWE feels it can no longer make it tenable, perhaps the best outcome would be for the Tobacco Dock legend to be laid in dignified, eternal sleep.
Thanks for the memories. RIP.
In the interim, we'll bring you more Ibiza worldwide reviews from the UK and beyond in the coming weeks. For an in depth analysis of Ibiza 2022, read our full season review.
