Ku/Privilege/UNVRS Ibiza – The Real Story – Part 2

Part 2 – Privilege Ibiza 1994-2019: Manumission madness to closure

Early 1991 and the world is gripped by war in the Arabian Gulf.  Kuwait has been liberated but the global collateral damage still rumbles on. One of the main casualties is the European tourism industry with bookings massively down. 

In Ibiza, the biggest club in the world now has a roof due to noise restrictions and isn’t having a great time. The dynamic has changed and its hangar like interior takes thousands to fill and there’s not enough people around. Nobody realised at the time but this was the beginning of the end of the mythical Ku Club. It limped on for another year but closed its doors in 1992 and would not open again until 2 years later when a new name would appear on the enormous iconic dome. 

For summer 1994 the now renamed ‘Privilege Ibiza’ was about to open its doors. Tourism was back on track and a club night was about to take the island and the world by storm. Legendary promoters Paul Dennis and ‘Mad’ Tommy Mack were putting a Monday night together to go head to head with Mad Mondays at Pacha after another fallout with their partner Alan Warman.

Paul and Tommy had brought along brothers Andy and Mike McKay who were making a name for themselves on the Manchester scene and the night was called Manumission. As is the wont of club promotors, within a few weeks there would be a big fallout including fisticuffs between the four of them leaving the McKay brothers to go it alone. The rest, as they say, is history. 

1994 was the start of a new era, it had taken a few years but the penny had dropped for European club nights to come to Ibiza and create an experience that would catapult their brand into cyberspace. Ibiza’s club scene had been evolving since the mid 80’s and it was about to enter the era of the promoter. 

Privilege with its enormous 10,000 capacity and esteemed history was THE venue in world clubbing. Pacha was cooler, Amnesia was edgier and Space was an eclectic madhouse but if you could crack the biggest club in the world then sky was the limit. 

Summer 1994 in Privilege saw Manumission on Mondays joined by Cream on Thursdays. The Liverpool brand has jumped on the bandwagon and started filling out the club.  From closure the previous year, Privilege now had the 2 biggest nights on the island. 

Brands came and went but over the years Privilege unveiled new promotions that pushed the  boundaries. Renaissance started in 2000 which included live music and personal appearances by world famous artists such as Kylie Minogue, M People and many more. Privilege had come full circle and was at the top of its game again, conversely the roof had given it the crackling atmosphere that an open air venue could never have.

Manumission will go down as groundbreaking in Ibiza’s clubbing history taking Privilege to new levels, full of creativity and infamous shows. The world wanted a piece of the action and Manumission were happy to oblige.

From 1994 to 2016 even through the ebbs and flows, Privilege was still seen as the pinnacle of clubland, an iconic landmark on the Ibiza to San Antonio main road. Were there better clubs? Of course but the sheer size and magnificence of Privilege set it apart from the rest. 

Manumission, after putting the superclub back on the map, ran into problems with the owners (as often happens on the white isle) and petered out at the start of the new millennium but Privilege stayed relevant, putting on mega-parties such as SuperMartxe that ran from 2008 for over a decade. Radio 1 held many events there with Pete Tong leading the way and were always a sell out.

By the late noughties the era of the promoter had now given way to the era of the superstar DJ, their faces staring down at you from most of Ibizas advertising hoardings. The Tiesto residency in 2008 was massive and Resistance with Carl Cox and other top names was Privilege’s final big promotion in 2019.

It had been over 25 years of incredible parties but the Ibiza dynamic was radically changing. In reality Privilege’s business had been declining in the face of fierce competition, not least the rise of daytime venues, and the club was falling into disrepair with parts closed off by the local council due to safety issues.

Murmurs of a legal situation had surfaced in 2016 when the Matutes Group, owners of Ushuaia, who were also partners in Privilege had reportedly invoked a clause in the shareholders agreement to acquire the shares held by José María Etxaniz who was trying to sell his majority stake to a 3rd party.

In an ironic twist Sr Etxaniz had tried to get Balearic judges to close down Ushuaia citing ‘unfair competition’ arguing that the hotel had ‘a competitive advantage by violating laws’ and operating as a ‘de facto nightclub’ without the necessary licences. 

Once Etxaniz showed his hand with an intention to sell, the Matutes group went on the offensive and invoked a shareholder rule where they could buy Etxaniz’s shares in Privilege as long as they matched the asking price and this is where it all went a bit Pete Tong, to use a DJ analogy. 

The Matutes group disagreed with the asking price of 23.8 million euros so a court appointed auditor was ordered to value the club. In 2018, after much wrangling the Matutes group legally acquired the remaining shares to own the club outright for a rumoured amount of around 20 million euros but the court case didn’t end there as Etxaniz appealed to judges for a better payoff especially as the Pacha Group had changed hands a couple of years earlier for 350 million euros. 

While lawyers and judges were being kept busy the world was about to be gripped by a global pandemic that meant that’s Ibiza’s clubs, it’s most famous commodity, didn’t open for 2 years. By the time the clubs reopened the legalities of Privilege had been settled, the owners of Ushuaia and Hï Ibiza now had another massive project on their hands.

As an empty Privilege fell into further disrepair, the online rumour mill went into overdrive fuelled by saccharine voiced ‘content creators’. It wasn’t until autumn 2023 that the Matutes Group’s plans started to filter out when it was announced that Ibiza’s Tourism Planning Commission had given the green light to a renovation project with an initial investment of around 8.2 million euros for the rehabilitation and improvements in water circularity and solar energy. 

The world’s worst kept secret was out of the bag. The nightclub previously known as Ku and then Privilege was reopening but in what form? The Matutes Group were riding on the crest of a wave, Ushuaia and Hi were being internationally recognised as world leaders in entertainment so it didn’t take a genius to surmise that a new superclub would fit perfectly within their forward thinking strategy.

Fast forward to late summer 2024 and social media lights up with Hollywood ‘bad boy’ Will Smith on Privilege’s roof with The Night League’s (Ushuaia and Hï’) CEO Yann Pissenem announcing that UNVRS – the worlds first ‘hyper-club’ would be opening in 2025.

Part 3 – The Night League unveils UNVRS and Social Media goes into Meltdown.