The island's newest club, Gatecrasher, officially opened its doors for the first time last night for its contribution to the opening calendar. It was confirmed back in February that the team behind Brummie club Gatecrasher had successfully won the bidding war for San Antonio's Eden, and were going to have a go at replicating their success in Birmingham here in the clubbing capital of the world, Ibiza.
Over the past few weeks the Gatecrasher crew have gone all out with promotion, from billboards to posters, you'd be pushed to find someone who didn't know that Gatecrasher had arrived on the white isle. However as with any new club opening, there are certainly no guarantees, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that when I arrived at 1am - fairly early in Ibiza land - there was already a hefty queue building up outside.
Although there is a small side room, for the most part Gatecrasher focuses its parties on just one large room. A balcony running round the perimeter creates a second level, but the music remains consistent, so I'm afraid its tough luck if you're not keen on a particular song or DJ. Luckily enough though, the crowd last night seemed pretty content with the chart-heavy line up - and not having to spend half your night searching for your friends is always a nice novelty.
Alex Ellenger was followed by Dee Montero and Ibiza's own Mambo Brothers who all pitched in to get things going, with am energetic mix of funky house and heavier beats. An already hyper crowd was practically bouncing off the walls as Co2 cannons pumped away in time to the bass lines and sequined dancers strutted their stuff on the podiums. The decks were then taken over by Shift K3y, fresh from the number 3 spot in the UK charts last month, followed up by Radio 1's very own MistaJam. This commercial twist for Ibiza's openings may not have been one for underground connoisseurs, but the Gatecrasher crew clearly know what they're doing when it comes to pulling in punters to an unknown club: book big. And judging by the packed dance floor it paid off.
Shift k3y played a solid set showcasing that a heavy bass line can still work just as well with a large dose of pop thrown into the mix, with tracks like Disclosure's When A Fire Starts To Burn and Fatboy Slim's remix of Wildchild's Renegade Master. He also ensured that any big Shift K3y fans in attendance wouldn't go home disappointed - giving a live performance of his recent hit Touch.
MistaJam then took over the reigns, keeping the crowd entertained with some good old back-of-the-bus style chanting of the 'If I say Mista, you say Jam, when I say Gate, you say Crasher' variety. His set was back-to-back classics, from Chic's Le Freak to Daft Punk's One More Time. And if you weren't too busy dancing at the front, there was quite the show going on in the centre of the room. Suspended above the crowd was an unfeasibly flexible woman writhing round on wet plastic sheeting, and an equally toned man showing off his acrobatic skills. Weird and wonderful Ibiza style entertainment at its finest, (or a chance for us mere mortals to regret not starting our Ibiza diets a bit earlier, depending on how you look at it).
Last up was legendary trance duo Aly & Fila, who steered the night away from that grey area that lies between pop and EDM, and placing everyone's feet firmly back in safe Ibiza territory. As ever they didn't disappoint, cranking up the base and building up to some monumental drops with tracks like Weird Al Yankovic's Here's Johnny. There was still a substantial crowd getting their daily dose of bass right until 6am, when the Egyptian duo, comprised of Aly Amr Fathalah (aka Aly) and Fadi Wassef Naguib (aka Fila) finished up what was undoubtedly a successful first night for Ibiza's new kid on the block. Let's hope Gatecrasher can help put San Antonio back on the Ibiza clubbing map.
WORDS | Joanna Wright
