Month: September 2025

What’s Happened to Ibiza’s Bars? 

80s Cocktails

Back in the 80s and 90s Ibiza was a very defined place. Party all night, sleep all day, it was that simple. Space opened in the early 90s and broke the rules with a 6am start but this was more of a ‘carry-on” rather than a daytime venue. 

By the early 2000’s daytime had started to become a thing. The Liverpool club Garlands had captured a voracious market for dancing in the daytime with their legendary Kanya parties in San Antonio before an ill fated move to Playa den Bossa put the brakes on but the seed had been sown. 

Ibiza Rocks’ iconic concerts with some of Europe’s biggest bands had pushed evening starting times even earlier (mainly due to noise controls) and Carl Cox’s takeover at Space started at 8pm. Something that was unheard of a decade earlier. 

Ushuaia opened in 2010 and copied the Ibiza Rocks model with daytime and evening events and then the beach clubs came to the fore.

O Beach, Nikki Beach, Nassau, Blue Marlin, Beachouse, Amante, Clap House, Beso Beach, El Silencio, Elements to name but a few that are now open for business. There’s something to wet everybody’s whistle from dancing semi naked with flying dinosaurs to delicious sushi on leopard skin beds and everything in between. The explosion of Ibiza’s daytime venues has been both unstoppable and remarkable.

Then we have Ibizas super clubs led by 2025’s opening of UNVRS, the self styled world’s first ‘hyper club’ and who can argue. Let’s add Hï, Pacha, Amnesia and DC10 into the mix and also throw in Chinois, Es Paradis and Eden with the biggest names in EDM music every night.

I’m not even going to go into Ibiza’s amazing culinary scene which is genuinely world class.

The options are limitless. Mind blowing if, like the majority of people, you only come to Ibiza for 3 or 4 nights. 

So in an overpopulated marketplace something’s gotta give so what about Ibiza’s famous bar scene? It was the backbone of the hedonistic White Isle society through the ages but is now finding it tough, positioned between the growing number of daytime venues and the night clubs.

I’m not including the bars that are destination venues, such as the sunset bars which are a phenomenon all to themselves. Who doesn’t come to Ibiza and have sundowners in an iconic surrounding like Mambo, Cafe del Mar, Kumharas, Mint Lounge, Sunset Ashram, Hostal la Torre and all the rest. These aren’t bars anymore, they are experiences with food and sometimes a hefty minimum spend. 

The humble bar where you walk in and have a beer or a gin and tonic and shoot the breeze are the ones getting squeezed. Their market is diminishing as there isn’t enough hours in the day. It’s all about daytime parties where you dress to impress in secure surroundings, food, sunset cocktails, super clubs with world famous DJ’s. In other words Instagrammable moments. 

Whereas once it was cheap hotels, sleeping on the beach all day, a pre-party, sitting on stools watching the club parades, a mini bar crawl then clubbing into the small hours, now it’s a 4 or 5 star hotel and a pre-planned schedule for 18 hours a day with very little room for spontaneity.

The beauty of Ibiza is that it’s an ever changing environment that constantly reinvents itself. That’s why it’s at the top of its game but also why some traditional businesses have been overtaken. What’s the next big thing going to be?

The Curious Case of ‘Frank the Stagman’

Where do we start with ‘Frank the Stagman’?

You may or may not have heard of him, the eponymous hero of his own story, the clue is in the self titled name. He made his reputation on the notorious stag and hen circuit in Benidorm offering tailor made packages and running his own travel agency and bar, parading around town in his hi-vis supercar, happily posing for photos with whoever wants one.

Frank clearly understands the power of social media and, as many do, he likes to document his life online. A no holds barred blitz of verbal diarrhoea documenting his thoughts, ideas and wishes including, rather bizarrely, details of his partner Jade who performs a live sex show much to his delight. As he says himself he loves ‘watching her get railed’. Each to their own and they are consenting adults so it’s none of anyone else’s business whatever sexual fetish they so choose to partake in. It’s all part of the strange make up of this couple and maybe to some, part of the attraction.

Where the story becomes relevant to this self titled ‘Man in San An’ is Frank’s quest to conquer San Antonio’s West End through his alleged ‘purchase’ of the Lux nightclub formerly known as Play 2, home of a thousand memories for those lucky enough to be in San Antonio during the glory days of the 90’s and 00’s.

Judging from the online comments (and private Whatsapp messages) it’s safe to say that Frank is a marmite figure but he has a loyal following back in Benidorm and plays to his strengths and his adoring crowd. Where this tale becomes slightly more dramatic is his online strategy of pronouncing himself to be the chosen one sent to ‘save’ the West End, the infamous street stretching a couple of hundred metres in the urban centre of San Antonio.

Watching and listening to his online posts was a mixture of high octane energy mixed in with a touch of delusion and a rounded off with some ‘Jackanory’ (look it up kids) but who doesn’t like to spin a tale on social media these days especially when you’re trying to sell something. Some might say he’s another online narcissist hooked on the attention that only social media can shine a light on but I couldn’t possibly comment and maybe people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but these platforms can work both ways and it’s a brave decision to become such a vocal disruptor in an already busy street with plenty of characters, petty jealousies and egos.

San Antonio veterans like myself and my social circle have seen it all before, a bravado performance lacking a little in self awareness and asking for trouble. A high stakes game that can make or break a reputation.

Needless to say Frank’s quest to ‘save the West End’ didn’t end well. I had September in the sweepstake so when he packed up his his bright yellow sports car and legged it back to the mainland before the end of July I was annoyed that I hadn’t been braver with my prediction.

It turns out that the West End doesn’t need ‘saving’ after all. It has its challenges, it needs evolution and new ideas and brave decisions but it doesn’t need those looking for a quick buck who don’t understand the dynamic of an area consistently in the spotlight. After retreating to his safe space Frank finally owned up to his ‘failure’ and unsurprisingly it was everyone’s else’s fault except his own.

What is reassuring about this story is that Ibiza is still an incredibly difficult nut to crack especially when you’re trying to bring a bit of Benidorm into the mix. The island has moved on in so many ways and any business needs investment. Not just money but time, effort and real graft rather than a few social media posts promising the world but ultimately delivering very little.

I don’t know Frank or Jade and hold no ill will for him or his modus operandi and at least they ‘had a go’ even if they did leave with their tails firmly between their legs but Ibiza isn’t Benidorm or anywhere else in the world for that matter. I hope he continues to be successful wherever he chooses to operate but let the Stagman’s tale be a cautionary one for those looking to reinvent the wheel and make some quick euros on the White Isle. As the old saying goes….you don’t choose Ibiza, Ibiza chooses you.

Carnage on a Sunny Sunday Ibiza Morning

Scene of the Crime

On Sunday morning I decided to take a walk. I won’t bore you with the details but I was trying out a rucksack I had purchased for my winter travels. I was bumbling along at a gentle pace when I happened upon a scene of pure carnage at Es Pouet beach near the NYX hotel in San Antonio. Several ambulances with flashing lights, 3 people being attended to, one of them in a very bad way.

It was a scene of nightmares. I saw a guy I knew with his wife who was obviously still in shock. They had witnessed the accident, had been right next to the three young ladies as they had been mown down by the big Jeep Wrangler driving erratically, hitting a lamppost and a bin.

It was 11.30am on a Sunday morning for god’s sake. I hung around like a spare part taking a few photos as is my instinct at these times. I put the pics on our British Association whatsapp group to share the news and someone came back straight away with the following

“I saw this guy driving near my work this morning. He was on the wrong side of the road as had a balloon going on”

Let that sink in for a minute.

Words truly fail me at these times. The witness at the scene described to me in detail what he had seen and said straight away that he feared the worst for the young girl and unfortunately he was proved correct when a little later word came through that she had tragically passed away. Innocently walking down the street on a Sunday morning in the Ibiza sunshine.

It’s times like this when I hate it. The whole free spirit thing, do what you love, love what you do but I need to remind myself that the man arrested for this heinous crime is the exception not the rule. We can’t blame anything or anyone apart from him for his actions. He was the one speeding, he was the one sucking on a balloon in a 1 ton vehicle which became a deadly weapon.

It could have been my friends, it could have been my children, it could have been you or me but tragically it was 3 innocent young ladies in their early 20s who were in the wrong place at the wrong time minding their own business until a selfish show off in a powerful SUV decided that his petty enjoyment was more important than the life of a girl he will never know but always remember.

The arrested man will now face justice and be given what he deserves, I will leave that to the Spanish courts but whatever he subsequently has to face it will be nothing compared to the news that some poor parents are now trying to process. A daughter on holiday who won’t be coming home.

Truly Heartbreaking.