The White Island, White Isle, or Illa Blanca, whatever you call it, it is Ibiza and it is magical

Located just off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea, Ibiza is a paradise for any wanderlust being; and when entrapped in electronic music, this location like no where on earth. Many have flocked there for years with pictures that have been embedded in my mind for decades, I can finally say I have been to Ibiza.

I arrived in Ibiza into a lightly humid gorgeous afternoon with my traveling partners LA local Vanessa aka Vangar and Carlos Arteaga and we met up with Hugh Kirkpatrick and the entire North Ireland Trance Family, who took us in for the week and helped make our trip that much more amazing.

I am just going to go over some highlights of the island then focus on the main reason I flew over 6,000 miles, which is trance music!

The food was good, and the Golden Buddha has to be a restaurant you eat at least 3 times, once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once at sunset so you can see the most gorgeous views while enjoying really good food. Though I am a picky eater, this restaurant was amazing. I ordered some of the best sweet and sour wings and this delicious plate of Patatas Bravas; just thinking about them makes me want to go back.

The island is beautiful, picturesque, serene, and all the beauty of the Mediterranean at your fingertips. It has the old town feel with narrow roads, a lot of roundabout and zero Uber to get around town. Luckily most things are relatively close especially in San Antoni where we stayed and taxis were a decent price. The weather is exactly what you expect for being in the Mediterranean, humid. Bathing suits, shorts, maxi dresses, and comfortable shoes was all you needed for this vacation in paradise.

The night life culture is vibrant and home of Balearic beat that gave birth to British acid house sound, electronic music is alive and well in Ibiza. From the moment you exit the airport, you are staring at posters and billboards of the biggest names in electronic music for all the clubs which is similar to Vegas of every major club, and the holiday season line ups.

On our first night, we went to the famous Tropi Trance Ibiza Bar for the North Ireland Trance takeover with the one and only Oscar who is an amazing owner and bartender. Tropi is known for bringing in trance acts around the world and giving many these artists their Ibiza debuts. I was lucky enough to catch Vangar both make her international debut destroying the building with her hard hitting beats. Vanessa was on cloud 9 as she achieved another major milestone in her career. It won’t be long before her name is a regular on the island. What a great way to start the trance week.

On Thursday, we went to our first day party at  Enigma Restaurante, which was more of a pool party on the beach. What a way to spend a day in Ibiza, trance music, pool, beach, and amazing vibes which set the perfect mood for what was coming next. From there, the party was off to Pure nightclub where David Rust, Woody Van Eyden, James Cottle, and more brought down the house. The club was really intimate with a lower ‘pit’ type dance floor, and it was packed. Trance fans were in every aspect of the building and you definitely got ‘close’ with one another as you couldn’t help but dance and bump into each other. The venue reminded me of an old school club in the early 2000’s with all dance floor, no VIP, a busy bar, and amazing music. This night was a success.

Friday was one of my favorite night because two of my favorite DJs were playing. Menno De Jong’s In Trance We Trust event was taking place at the famous seal pit at the abandon zoo. The location looks much bigger in videos and pictures but it definitely can hold a lot of fans. The pit was packed as Sam Mitcham, Coldblue, Menno, and my “bae” John O’Callaghan took the stage who stole the show and arguably the best set of the weekend. Taking uplift to a new level, he played track after track that just took you to a new level. Especially when he dropped “Behind the Silence”. This track is becoming one of my favorite quickly. If that wasn’t enough, my fan girl dreams kept coming true as I was invited to go on stage by the Music First team, and watch JOC deliver his brilliance from his view. Seeing the crowd from the DJs viewpoint was amazing. Trance music is so powerful as it lifts everyone to a higher state. His set ended way too early in my opinion, but due to a noise ordinance, no music can be played outside after 11pm. So the party was moved into The Club at the zoo where Amir Hussain and Adam Ellis destroyed the place and brought the night to a wonderful end.

On Saturday morning, I somehow was able to get out of bed to make my way over to the Driftwood Boat Party for some Pure Trance with Solarstone and Factor B. Being the Groove Cruise alumni that I am, I couldn’t wait for this boat party. Solarstone and Factor B were meant to play in Ibiza on the water. The event was so big, we actually needed two boats. One the boat we were on, Factor B started off the day and as soon as we left the harbor, he jumped on the decks and took everyone to a magical place. Playing his smash “White Rooms”, dolphins appeared and seemed to be jumping to the beat which was epic.

After a very fun switch, Solarstone jumped on our boat and stole the whole weekend leaving the place mesmerized. I believe he was controlling the weather as well, because while playing one of my favorite tracks “Lovers”, in the lyrics, “…Save me from the rain…” and as if on cue it started to rain but then soon after some uplifting tracks, the clouds parted, a rainbow showed up, and rays of light shone down as if heaven was approving.

As the music played as the sun set, it was both emotional and spiritual. Everything that happened, the craziness to make it happen was worth every single penny.  I was exactly where I needed to be and a full calm came before me.

After the epic boat party, we went to the Golden Buddha for some fuel and then ran back to Itaca Terrace to catch the lovely Maria Healey and Alessandra Roncone, where they showed that the women of trance can go just as hard as the boys. Both ladies commanded the room, and although the room was like a sauna, everyone was on their feet the entire time. I limped out of the club, made a quick stop at Tropi to catch Amos and Riot Night then crawled into bed. I was down for the count and in only a few more hours, I would be doing it again.

Sunday came to fast and the pinnacle of the trance events was about to go down – Captured Festival. With four stages throughout the abandon zoo, Captured Festival is becoming a world class event hosted from Luminosity, Wax Format, Illuminaughty and Xstatic.  Illuminaughty was all psytrance and took place in The Club where I only caught a glimpse of Neelix, because my best friend Amanda told me too. I watched a little of Sam Mitcham and Orkidea spin vinyl which is always a treat to see those records spin. Will Atkinson, Solarstone, and Bryan Kearney killed it on the main stage, commanding the crowd.

My heart was at Xstatic where HARD TRANCE LIVES! This lineup was a dream come true. I enjoyed K90 as I finally got to see him play “Red Snapper”. One of my favorite people in the world Shugz destroyed a packed house with his energy just vibrating off him. Anne Savage who is a longtime favorite of the hard dance error destroyed, but Scot Project OMG!!! I danced my butt off. He dropped hard trance like it was 1999 again. Club destroying track like “Found Love” makes 138bpm look like child’s play which was exactly what I needed at that moment so I forward to seeing him at Dreamstate in November.

Once the dust settled from Captured Festival, we hopped on the shuttle and went to Es Paradis, one of the original clubs from the 1970s, for the official after-hours called Sunk. Here Will Atkinson, The Thrillseekers, Signum, Ferry Tayle, and Scot Project took to the decks to continue the party till 5am. I was in heaven as each DJ kept the energy flowing and myself dancing all night long. The club was stunning and what looked like an enlarge gazebo that went down three layers to a large pit, the DJ booth actually was risen high so you really couldn’t look at the DJ. Outside the main area were many multi-layer raised dance floors around the venue. The place could pack a lot of people easily and even at 4 am it was still pretty busy. Hands down one of my favorite venues in the world, just because of the uniqueness. Nothing else like it on earth.

Monday morning with the rising sun, we found a taxi and went back to our apartment for the week. Fell on the bed and went to sleep immediately. Just enough time to eat and get back down to the docks for the second Driftwood Boat party. This time with Jon O’Bir and Bryan Kearney and although the sea was a little rougher than the first time around, the music couldn’t be better. Jon O’Bir delivered again with another gorgeous set of classic trance. If you ever get a chance to see him please do, because Jon O’Bir is such a class act and legend,.

Bryan Kearney jumped on the decks and took us home playing the scale of uplift to psy and dropping his mega anthem “All over again”, as well as many other tracks. As our final sunset took place, I was able to take in all that transpired in realization of these two things. (1) I am insane, I party a lot and hard, would do it again in a heartbeat, (2) there is no where on earth I would have rather been then right there at that moment.

After the boat we went back to the apartment and packed. All three of us had different flights and different destinations afterwards and we were going to spend our last night out and with a bang. I don’t know if you can say we saved the best for last, but we definitely ended with some of the biggest headliners in the world. Going to another original club from the 1970s, Privilege (formerly Ku), was home to Shine Ibiza, where Paul Van Dyk, Aly & Fila, Stoneface and Terminal, along with Ed Heaney of NITF and Heart & Hawk. What a way to end trance week in Ibiza. The venue was huge! Reminded me of the large dance spaces of venues like Circus Disco in Hollywood. With many rooms, no VIP on the dance floor, and everyone dancing, it was the cherry on top.

Tuesday morning, I begrudgingly got in the taxi and headed to the airport. As the sky started to turn grey and match my emotions it felt like the island was sad for me, and rained as my plane raced down the runway for the long journey back home.

On my 13 hours of flying home I was able to reflect a lot. Ibiza was on my bucket list for a very long time. Trance allowed me to make it happen as it has many other bucket list items. I have started traveling the world for trance, and the only thing that gives me as much happiness and wholeness that trance does is traveling.

So yes, I will travel the world for trance, because every mile I go, every beat I hear, I am becoming the person I want to be and I am not going to stop anytime soon.

Till my next trancesation….

-Danielle Sanders