elrow Space Ibiza review

It’s the last Saturday of July in Ibiza and there is only one place on the island we intend on spending it - Space for the most enticingly chaotic dance music fiesta in Europe.

Originally hailing from Barcelona, elrow has taken the scene by storm over the past twelve months – in fact, storm is a polite way to put it, the themed events have passed through cities like a hurricane and this inflatable-laden cyclone shows no signs of easing off any time soon.

It was only earlier this summer that elrow hosted its own stage at Parklife Festival, an arena which was cited by many as the best installation at Heaton Park that weekend. It seems the clubbing brand can do no wrong no matter what country it's in.

If you’ve never been to elrow, then let us paint the picture from Saturday. Warning, we may get slightly over excited re-living the whole experience. So, imagine stepping into The Beatles' Yellow Submarine film crossed with Disney's Fantasia then crossed with those hallucinogenic dreams that you get from time to time after a heavy night out on the sauce – basically, it's a whole other world. 

The talent booked for these nights are pretty much the best in the business. We arrive just on time for Skream in the Discoteca. Not letting that broken leg stop him, he powered on for a full two hour set with his usual bucket-loads of energy and enthusiasm, dropping some absolute corkers including ‘Don’t Wait’ by Johan Agebjörn & Le Prix and ‘La Luna’ by Jude & Frank. 

Next up was the master of melodies himself, Kolsch. His set included a lot of arms-in-the-air-moments which were fused with beautiful string melodies and those signature progressions, especially when he played his remix of Harry Romero’s ‘Back’.

We also have to mention that on this particular line-up we had Richy Ahmed representing on the Terraza for an all night long set. After managing to escape a pack of menacing clowns and somehow getting ourselves covered in glitter and UV paint, we made it just in time to see him spin the Montel version of ‘Music is the Answer’ which, safe to say, went off as expected.

A factor which really sets elrow apart from any other night is the sheer amount of production and and imagination that goes into every aspect. Sure, we have great lighting and a good soundsystem regularly, but how many nights have aerial acrobatics and a human-sized duck crowd surfing in a rubber dinghy?

Can we also mention more confetti cannons than a confetti cannon factory? It’s likely that you can build a replica life-size paper-machè version of Space with the amount they blast out at each event. It’s what paper-machè dreams are made of. Oh, and the inflatables… blow ups of all shapes an sizes make their way into the crowd, there is likely more PVC and neoprene than a George Michael ’Club Tropicana’ pool party. Great fun!

As we spill out onto the streets of Playa d’en Bossa with an inflatable under each arm, we have the Leftwing & Kody version of Max Chapman’s ‘Get Freaky’ stuck in our head, a track that De la Swing played in his closing set. We don’t want to go home though, we want to join the circus which is elrow and immerse ourselves in that madness day in and day out. Same again next week?

Find all upcoming elrow events and get tickets.

Read more: Da La Swing In Residence (elrow)