Amnesia (nightclub)

Amnesia

250px Inside Amnesia in July, 2006. Photo: David Boyle
Location	San Rafael, Ibiza
Coordinates
Type	nightclub
Capacity	more than 5,000
Opened	1976 (1976)
Website
amnesia-ibiza.com

Amnesia is one of several internationally renowned clubs in Ibiza. It opened in 1976 and Cream founded by Joseph Mullen who took over the club in 1995 the venue was awarded Best Global Club in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 IDMA Awards in Miami. The club is located close to the village of San Rafael on the highway between Sant Antoni de Portmany and Ibiza Town. The venue can host more than 5,000 people on the dance floors. Today, the previously open-air terrace is closed, but light still floods in as sunrise approaches.

Events

Amnesia is currently run by the Cream nightclub, created and founded by Joseph Mullen from Chester in 1995, in Liverpool. Joseph Mullen sold the brand in 2005 to Cream UK for £2.8 Million and retired from the music industry for personal reasons.

The club hosts Cocoon (A party by Sven Väth) The club has also hosted popular nights such as La Troya Asesina.

Amnesia is home to many resident DJs as well as other exclusive performers, such as Sean Hughes, James Dutton, Laidback Luke, Paul Van Dyk and more.

History

The history of Amnesia really began in April 1970, when the Planells family who had inhabited the house for five generations decided to move into town and sell their finca (country house) to a widow from an aristocratic background. Ibiza, which had become a destination for tourism already in the fifties, was at that time a hive for counterculture and idealists and the building that was to become Amnesia turned into a meeting point with hippie bands playing and other facets of hippie culture taking place.

In May 1976, Antonio Escohotado, a young man born in Madrid who had arrived on the island two years earlier to start a new life, signed a lease with the landlady for use of the premises. He launched a discotheque named "The Workshop of Forgetfulness". He wanted to express that when people go out at night it is to forget their problems and indulge in an unknown world far away from ordinary routine. However, the next day he realized that the Greek word Amnesia contains it all.

In 1978, Ginés Sánchez, a manufacturer from Madrid took over Amnesia and a decade filled with ups and downs began. Unexpected closings alternated with wonderful summers with capacity crowds in active competition with the other discothèques, such as Ku (now Privilege), Pacha, Glory’s and Lola’s.

In the 80s, a young Basque named Prontxio Izaguirre took over the running of Amnesia, and the music changed to dance music, a mix between pop and funk, and hip hop. Freestyle mixing was permitted and house was about to take over. The Ibizencan discothèques introduced the magic of open rooftops. The original Balearic Beat emerged spearheaded by legends like DJ Alfredo Fiorito and DJ Huggy MacPherson. On the night of June 22, 1991 Amnesia reopened under MFC management. It is at this time that the clubs of Ibiza began to gain international fame. In the mid nineties, Ezna Sands, one of the major influences within the UK Dance scene, was instrumental in the arrival of many UK promoters and labels, including the legendary Joseph Mullen, onto the Balearic Island and into Amnesia specifically. This heralded a shift in the perception that the Island was simply a destination for 18-30 holiday makers, instead becoming the mecca for dance music enthusiasts the world over with Amnesia and Pacha, amongst others, leading the way.

Due to complaints from its neighbours, Amnesia had to cover its open-air dance floor. Even so, the club experienced massive expansion with the number of bars increasing from four to 16, and from a staff of 30 to more than 200 employees during the summer festivities. The staff now includes waiters, go-go dancers, security, light-jockeys, as well as administration staff.

See also

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• List of electronic dance music venues

External links

• Official website