Ibiza’s Most Expensive Cocktail? Water!

Ibiza’s nightlife industry is very good at turning things into money.

A DJ becomes a brand. A dancefloor becomes a VIP area. A table becomes a four-figure experience and somehow, through an extraordinary piece of commercial alchemy, water becomes a luxury product.

Perhaps it is time we talked about that.

We constantly hear about the challenges facing Ibiza’s nightlife industry. Illegal parties. Regulation. Taxes. Noise restrictions. Government interference. Rising costs. The nightlife associations are rarely shy about pointing out where everyone else is getting it wrong. 

Fair enough, but perhaps occasionally the industry needs to turn the mirror around and ask whether there are things it could do better too, and water would be a very good place to start.

This isn’t about demanding cheap vodka, subsidised cocktails or €3 beers in a superclub. Ibiza’s major venues are enormously expensive businesses to operate. They employ hundreds of people, book some of the biggest DJs on the planet and produce shows on a scale few destinations can match.

People understand that they’re going to pay a premium but water is different. Water isn’t really part of the party. It’s part of staying safe enough to enjoy it.

We are talking about venues where thousands of people can spend hours dancing in extremely hot conditions. Many will be drinking alcohol. People sweat. People become dehydrated.

Yet the one thing their bodies need more than anything else can become one of the most disproportionately expensive things at the bar.

Reports in Ibiza have put the price as high as €15 for a tiny 200ml bottle. Think about that for a moment. That’s €75 a litre.

Forget petrol. Forget champagne, apparently the real liquid gold in Ibiza is H₂O.

Other countries see water differently. In England and Wales, licensed premises are required to provide free potable drinking water to customers where it is reasonably available.

Why? Because it is considered part of responsible alcohol licensing and customer welfare.

Spain itself has moved in the same direction. National legislation requires hospitality and restaurant businesses to offer customers the possibility of consuming non-bottled water free of charge, while regulations concerning certain events also specifically address access to drinking water.

So perhaps the conversation shouldn’t simply be:

“How much can we charge for a bottle of water?”

Perhaps it should be:

“How do we make sure everyone in our venue can stay properly hydrated?”

Those are two very different questions. Ibiza could actually lead on this

I’m not suggesting clubs have to give everyone unlimited bottles of branded mineral water all night. There are plenty of sensible alternatives.

How about hydration stations?

How about clearly accessible drinking-water points around the venue?

Or here’s another idea. The Ibiza refill cup. Buy a reusable water cup or bottle when you enter for, say, €5 or €10. Then refill it with drinking water throughout the night.

The venue gets some revenue. Thousands of disposable plastic bottles potentially disappear from the system. Customers drink more water. And Ibiza gets to promote something genuinely progressive rather than simply defending another €12 bottle.

You could even brand the cups.

Let’s face it, if anyone can turn a reusable plastic cup into a desirable €10 souvenir, Ibiza’s nightlife industry can.

Duty of care shouldn’t depend on your wallet and this is the bigger point. Ibiza continually talks about improving its tourism product.

Quality tourism.

Responsible tourism.

Sustainable tourism.

Safe nightlife.

Those phrases have to mean something.

You cannot spend millions creating some of the most technologically advanced entertainment venues in the world and then treat basic hydration as though it were another premium upsell.

And this is where Ibiza’s nightlife associations should perhaps show some leadership.

They are very quick — sometimes quite rightly — to criticise politicians, regulations, illegal parties, bureaucracy and anyone else they believe is damaging Ibiza’s nightlife product but improving that product also requires looking inward.

Making drinking water easily and affordably available wouldn’t diminish Ibiza’s clubs it would improve them. It would be good for customers. Good for safety. Good for Ibiza’s reputation and potentially good for the environment.

Nobody is asking Ibiza to stop making money. It’s Ibiza. That’s unlikely to happen anytime soon but perhaps there are some things we shouldn’t try quite so hard to turn into gold and water might be one of them.