Last Friday evening the focal point of the Sunset Strip party scene burst back into play for Ibiza 2015. I'm talking about San Antonio's Café Mambo of course which, true to form, enlisted the help of one of the biggest DJs of the last twenty years, John Digweed, to celebrate the start of a new season.
Judging by the huge amount of people milling along the boulevard and spilling across the rocks, it might as well have been peak season, if it weren't for the innopportune gale wreaking havoc amongst the carefully arranged skirts and hairdos of San Antonio's females, myself included. With an ice cold caña from Mambo in one hand, and the folds of my stupid flappy skirt bunched tightly in the other protecting my maidenhood, I headed down to the craggy shoreline to secure a prime position for the moment of sundown.
In an expert display of inevitable celestial motions, the sun did indeed set, accompanied by the traditional applause from the coast which, this time around, was probably the liveliest I had ever heard with catcalls, piercing whistles, foot-stomping and clapping in honour of the sun's smooth performance. The whole sunset applause thing is polarising amongst Ibiza residents, with many put off by the undeniable cheese-factor of the moment. For my part, I think it's awesome. A moment when all of San Antonio's visitors (often with vastly different ideas of a good time when you factor in tourist families, island residents and 18 year old clubbers) are unified for an instant in appreciation of nature's fine work.
With 'the moment' out of the way, the Mambo DJ booth began to heat up, with John Digweed taking over once night had fallen with darker, melody focused tracks rolling out into the blustery evening. Team Spotlight was getting a little peckish, so we grabbed a takeaway pizza from up the road and sat on the rocks in front of Mambo knocking back the cheese slices and spotting Marilyn Monroe skirt flying moments, because we are very grown up.
After Digweed finished, the makeshift dancefloor around Mambo subsided a little, but the energy was kept alive by an awesome fire-twirling, fire-dancing and fire-breathing performance out on the rocks, culminating in a brilliant firework display that would have been spotted from the other side of the bay.
We ran into so many familiar faces that night, because Mambo opening is just one of those iconic Ibiza events people feel the need to be a part of. Here's to another summer of sunsets, cocktails, pre-parties and dancing on the rocks.
WORDS | Jordan Smith PHOTOGRAPHY | James Chapman
