Ibiza Superclubs Launch Nature Magazine

All seven Ibiza superclubs (Amnesia, Eden, El Divino, Es Paradis, Pacha, Privilege and Space) have teamed up to launch a new magazine called Ibiza United which will be like "CondeNast Traveller meets Pacha Magazine meets National Geographic', they announced this week.

The promotional glossy will include "beautiful and scenic photographer of the island and its hidden treasures' and will be "the ultimate guide to Hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and beaches for 2005', its publishers insist, raising interesting questions about whether it will highlight legendary disco bars like Bora Bora, Sa Trinxa, and Benirras. Ibiza authorities recently shut down the mainly free (relatively) cheap club/ bars for noise and licensing violations, raising questions about whether they'll re-open at all next year.

If they do, the island will prove even more expensive for revellers than ever, something that even multi-millionaire rapper P Diddy complained about earlier this year (ironically in Pacha magazine).

"I'll keep coming back but the crazy prices are spoiling it, all of a sudden it's getting really expensive," he claimed.

"It used to be a place where everybody could afford to experience it, but it's much harder for people to come. Me personally, I'll go where the fresh music is," he warned.

Andy Manumission, whose Monday night parties at Privilege remain the island's biggest draw, also warned that workers are increasingly being priced off the island and suggested Ibiza is at a "crossroads'.

"Yes, Ibiza is expensive and it's reached the point where it's very difficult for the average working man to be able to afford to live in Ibiza," Andy told Skrufff.

"It's potentially painful but entirely necessary; the island has to get a bit quieter," he continued. "I think it was operating at about 110% for a number of years, then when the euro came in prices rose. Certain things need rechecking and adjusting," he said.

Ever increasing prices are also most likely to deter younger visitors, meaning the island could end up eventually becoming a retirement home for rich ravers.

"The outside media criticise our island as the paradise with Peter Pan's Syndrome," Amnesia chief Martin Ferrer told Pacha magazine this July, "that the Ibiza clubbers never retire and they end up as old fogeys."
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