Last night was my second time reviewing Pacha, and with Pure Pacha's opening of ‘Paris By Night', my expectations were diligently met. As a result I decided to also eagerly question clubbers throughout the night, keen to get a perspective other than my own on the night's proceedings. After all, the incredible line-up - France's own Bob Sinclar, Armand Van Helden, The Cube Guys and 2Vilas - was sure to get people talking.
So, on the discobus, I questioned Christopher Mason, a 28-year old from Edinburgh, who told me “As Ibiza virgins, we're excited to go anywhere - we've heard only good things about Pacha so we thought we'd give it a go”. Pacha's famed reputation didn't stop there, I spoke to two over excited girls in the queue, 25-year old Fiona from Romania and her Pacha first-timer friend, 28-year old Dori from Hungary: “It's a crazy place! Pacha is the best place in the world, I [Fiona] met Bob Sinclar in Paris and watched him in Barcelona, so we're most excited to see him again!”.
The club was the most VIP I've seen it yet - in the centre stood a huge, glowing Eiffel Tower that illuminated the crowd. The dancers had been transformed into futuristic versions of '60s French girls - wearing white classy cage skirts, they encouraged the crowd to get loose as they filtered through the dance floor.
"There's a confetti explosion and I'm reminded why Pacha has one of my favourite dance floors"
Sinclar spruced things up and added to the French vibe with his stripy top and neck scarf - clearly proud to be showing his Paris culture off in a place that screams Ibiza. Two of the most glamorous burlesque dancers joined Sinclar as he played Mousse. T's fitting track, ‘Horny ‘98', nipple tassels and top hats were launched around the dance floor and the temperature soared as more clubbers packed in.
One of Pacha's strong points will always be the characters that inhabit the place - people like the sensuous dancer stood inside a three-foot cocktail glass on the terrace. While she did her thing, I got stuck into chatting away to 22-year old Nathan Leech from Burnley, who gave one of the best answers yet... “We looked on Spotlight and saw how good it's supposed to be, [coming here] adds to the whole Ibiza experience.” Raj, a 35-year old from India had the same idea: “It's our first time out here, we went to Space on Sunday and loved it, someone told us to go to Pacha as it's one of the top 10 places to go - they were right!”.
With Raj's comment still echoing in my head I made it downstairs to catch Armand Van Helden, who's playing his own version of Blackbox's 'Ride On Time'. There's a confetti explosion and I'm reminded why Pacha has one of my favourite dance floors - the average ‘two step shuffle' is not accepted here, and only the most expressive are allowed, so I can be myself here even if i'm not VIP. Paris by Night was Pacha's way of showing off - they maintain the best crowd, the best line-ups, and they can even do it in French.
WORDS | Ruby Munslow
