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October has arrived and with it brought
those rainy days that Ibiza residents have been longing for.
I won't say much about rain and water as you can read all
about that in Kirk's weekly bulletin.
This past week has seen the closing parties
of all the main discotheques on the island.
Pacha, Privilege, Amnesia and Space have
all said goodbyes to the summer.
Amnesia was the first discotheque to close
its doors with a special "see you next year" party
on Saturday 22nd September.
Amnesia's neighbouring discotheque Privilege
waited until the following weekend (Saturday 29th) before
hosting their end of season party.
Ten Ibiza resident DJ's, a Cuban circus
and many performers kept the thousands of clubbers dancing
and entertained until the early hours of the morning.
A unique firework display at the end of
the night made sure that Privilege went out with a bang, until
next summer that is.
For those people who didn't get enough with
Privilege's closing party, Space discotheque was an enticing
"carry on".
"We love Sundays", one of the
most successful promoters on the island this summer, held
a 22-hour dance extravaganza at Space on Sunday 30th September.
Carl Cox, Timo Maas, Erick Morillo, Sven
Vath were only some of the top-name DJ's that played to a
packed venue.
After being voted "best club in the
world" in the Dancestars Awards, Space proved just how
good summer 2001 has been for them.
Pacha discotheque also decided to celebrate
their last summer party on Saturday 29th September, the same
day as Privilege.
A free drink for all that attended was one
of Pacha's ways of saying thank you to all the clubbers that
have filled their dance floor through out the summer season.
The Saturday night party was also used as
a way to welcome in the winter season, as Pacha discotheque
will remain open every weekend through out the winter.
Es Paradis, one of San Antonio's main discotheques,
will be the last to close this year. Saturday 6th October
is the date chosen by the discotheque to host their traditional
last water party of the season.
With the discotheques now closed, there
are no more pre-parties to celebrate. The "sunset strip"
(Mambo, Café del Mar, Coastline, etc.) in San Antonio
are also packing-up for the season.
Now that summer 2001 is almost over, the
San Antonio Town Hall has already started making plans about
how to keep San Antonio's growing nightlife under control.
Just a couple of weeks ago I told you about
Privilege and Amnesia discotheques having to remain closed
for one day after repeatedly disobeying the laws regarding
both noise and closing times.
Well, now with the discos closed, bars and
pubs are the latest target of San Antonio Council with 14
bars having their outside speakers shut down last week.
This move was put into action by San Antonio's
Home Secretary, Jose Juan Ferrer, who declared: "Let
this be a warning to all businesses in San Antonio. This is
how we will be functioning in 2002".
The 14 bars, mostly along San Antonio's
coastal areas (Paseo Maritimo), had their outside speakers
sealed on Friday 28th September.
The bars are losing part of their sound
systems because they have ignored constant warnings from the
Policia Local (Local Police).
In future, bars will be forced to keep all
speakers inside their premises to avoid any more disturbances
to the neighbours.
Jose Juan Ferrer also said: "The loud
noise from speakers on bar terraces is not the only problem
in San Antonio. Occupying the footpath with public telephones
and vending machines that don't have permits is also a problem
that we will tackle in the near future".
Even though the summer season has almost
ended, Ibiza is still attracting people from all over the
world. In most cases people come to the island for pleasure
while others arrive here on business.
One of these "business trips"
has been made by the leading German Television Company ZDF.
Although you might think that there isn't
much to see in Ibiza now that winter is approaching, ZDF think
differently.
ZDF have chosen Ibiza for the filming of
a new music programme called "Fraumschiff-Melodien".
This new television programme will travel
to ten different Mediterranean locations filming a video-clip
of the ten most popular German pop stars.
Filming started in Gibraltar on Sunday 30th
September and then travelled to Malaga on Tuesday 2nd October
to film a video-clip with flamenco artist Montesano.
On Wednesday 3rd October, ZDF arrived in
Ibiza with Simone, an Austrian singer, famous for coming second
place in the 1990 Eurovision song contest.
Dalt Vila (Ibiza Old Town) was the place
chosen by the directors for the six-hour "shoot".
Roads had to be closed-off to the general
public during the filming as absolute peace and quiet was
required to achieve the desired effect.
The filming of the ten-part programme will
be concluded on Tuesday 9th October in Rome.
ZDF will then fly back to Germany to add
the finishing touches to the programme, which will then be
broadcast on Sunday 14th October at 6pm on the German television
networks.
Another production team on the island at
the moment is the American Company Alpha Beta Films International.
They are here to film their latest project;
a romantic comedy made for the big screen entitled "Welcome
to Ibiza". They are also hoping it will be made into
a television series.
The North American film director David Winters
is in charge.
The film will star actors Mariano Alameda,
a famous Spanish actor, and McKenzie Aston, known for his
role with Sandra Bullock in "Love and War".
As most of the scenes will be shot on the
island, filming will last for several months.
The story is centred around three American
girls who arrive in Ibiza after inheriting a beach bar and
their different relationships with people they meet on the
island.
Hundreds of people are needed to take part
in "Welcome to Ibiza", so many people that Alfa
Beta Films International are having a difficult time finding
enough. Advertisements for four hundred extras aged between
18 and 35 have been placed in local newspapers.
David Winters has promised that "Welcome
to Ibiza" will be completed in time to enter next years
Cannes Film Festival and he will be hosting a world premiere
party in Ibiza in March or April next year.
That's the good news, now some bad news
Ibiza's private medical centres have made
headlines this week after the Guardia Civil (Civil Guards)
discovered that the privately owned medical centre "Ibidialyse"
in Santa Eulalia were dumping their medical waste in a field
in San Agustin.
The field, beside one of the employee's
houses, was being used as a dumping ground for all sorts of
materials such as dirty bandages, used syringes and various
plastic containers.
Nine of these containers, containing toxic
waste, were found in a hole in the field, "probably waiting
to be incinerated", according to the Guardia Civil.
A full investigation is now underway to
discover why this has happened and, hopefully ensure that
it won't happen again.
Public health care is also in the news this
week after Can Misses Hospital (the local public health hospital)
employees staged protest outside the hospital on Thursday
4th October.
Nurses, paramedics, auxiliary nurses, etc.
were protesting because a new agreement signed by the Ministry
of Health and donated to all hospitals by the Spanish government
have awarded a 5,000 million pesetas grant (equivalent to
a pay rise) to group B medical staff (doctors, surgeons, physicians,
etc.) only.
According to Rosa Planells, head of the
Sindicato de Auxiliares de Enfermeria (Nursing Auxiliary Syndicate),
"only 20% of Can Misses' staff can be classified into
group B which means that 80% of our staff will not receive
a pay rise".
Planells also said: "This is not our
only problem. Can Misses hospital is in desperate need of
more staff and the pay rise problem is the last thing we need
at the moment".
Can Misses employees will be on strike every
Thursday until an agreement is reached.
So you residents, if you're planing to be
sick, avoid Thursdays until further notice!
Also, if you are planning to escape the
island for Christmas you better leave now as practically every
flight around the Christmas period is fully booked. The situation
has not been helped this year with the schools breaking-up
for the holidays on Friday 21st December and Iberia deciding
to cancel a large number of direct flights to the mainland.
If you are quick you can still book a seat
on a flight to Mallorca which will enable you to connect with
flights to the rest of Europe.
But be warned Iberia and Air Europa have
increased a one-way ticket to Mallorca or the mainland by
1,300 pesetas, which are 8 Euro in new money. See you at the
travel agents!
Louise Wright
louisewright@ibizahistoryculture.com
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