Leading dance music figures have warned that Ibiza's burgeoning VIP culture is in danger of pricing out young clubbers.
The island has seen a huge upsurge in VIP customers over the past decade and table prices currently start at €150-200 (£134-178) per person.
In 2016, Ibiza had its biggest ever year for tourism, attracting 7.1 million visitors, while this year it gained a new, state of the art nightclub in Hï, which succeeded legendary superclub Space and has been warmly welcomed.
But speaking at the International Music Summit (IMS) in May, DJ Seth Troxler warned that all was not well beneath the surface. “Our ambition is taking out the working class of Ibiza," he said. "We are losing that cool, clubbing class of young people who came here to celebrate life and to experience underground quality music.”
IMS co-founder Ben Turner echoed those thoughts and told Music Week the repercussions were being felt during the current season.
“All of the island’s clubs have now changed the way they operate to cater for VIPs and treat them as more important than the clubber on the dance floor, and this year that resulted in a bit of an impact where there were fewer actual true music clubbers on the island than there had been for a number of years," he said.
“Unfortunately, the island has priced itself out of the market for the 16 to 20-year-old clubber who goes to Ibiza to find themselves and to fall in love with electronic music and DJs.”
Former Pacha brand director Danny Whittle, who runs the multi-faceted IBZ Entertainment, played down the concerns. “If tourism drops a bit in those segments, then the guys will adjust their prices,” he said.
“Pacha wouldn’t have survived here for 50 years without being able to read the market. As soon as they see things are dropping off, they’ll just drop the door prices and the drink prices down a bit.”
To read the full Music Week report on Ibiza, click here.
