Can Ibiza keep its cool club kids as the super-rich move in?

Ben Bryant travels to Europe’s party isle to celebrate 50 years of superclub Pacha and ask if superyachts and celebrities are changing its edge

24-hour party people: Pacha Ibiza (Danny Wade via Wikimedia Commons)

At around midnight, I wondered if the party was over. It turned out it hadn’t begun. In London, nothing good happens after 2am. In Ibiza, you’re still having dinner.

We were eating foie gras cherries inside iconic club Pacha as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. Not all clubs have their own restaurant, but at this point, the lines between many of the things I had previously taken for granted – day and night; dance time and nap time; first and fifth cocktail – were becoming increasingly blurry.

The sound system gurgled and thrummed into life a few rooms away and we leant in closer to each other, our faces gleaming with tiny telltale beads of perspiration that clung like a pox all week. We had spent the afternoon dancing to techno DJs Marco Carola and Solomun in front of a man-made lagoon at Destino resort as the sky faded from powder blue to crimson. The crowd was shockingly good looking – awash with fashionistas and the occasional timeless Ibiza stereotype. In front of me, a vista of sheer lace maxi dresses, skin fades and springy ringlets. Behind me, Burberry shorts and a Scarface tattoo.