Ibiza's legendary club Amnesia set to celebrate opening of 2024 season

Every year, the beginning of the Ibiza season is signified by Amnesia’s opening party. The club sits alongside Pacha and Privilege (previously Ku) as one of the legendary names of the scene. Founded at a country house in the San Rafael area in 1976, it’s also the longest running club on the island.

“Years before electronic music took over the island, Amnesia was already an iconic venue in the 1970s where people from all over the island were gathering to enjoy music, dancing and a new sense of freedom and counterculture,” Stéphane Schweitzer, a partner at the club, tells Euronews Culture.

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Originally named “The Workshop of Forgetfulness” by its owner Antonio Escohotado, a writer and philosopher. His goal was for people to “come to his venue and leave their worries behind, escaping from normal life,” Schweitzer says.

It was from this philosophy of creating an entire new world away from the quotidian that drew Escohotado to the Greek word “amnesia”, birthing the name the club is now famous for.

Since then, the club has evolved to dominate the electronic music scene, first with Ibiza’s signature Balearic beat sound that emerged in the 1980s, before tastes switched to Acid House at the end of the decade.

As Amnesia nears its 50th anniversary, it’s still run by Ibiza locals and hasn’t lost any of the qualities that made it legendary in the first place. The mega opening party is this Saturday (11 May) and runs from 11pm till late across its two dance floors.

Headline sets at the opening party will come from Green Velvet, the American DJ, the house legend who will take over the Terrace with help from Honey Dijon, Dennis Cruz, Joseph Capriati, Mar-T b2b Caal and Cristina Lazic.

Over in the Main Room, Italian duo 999999999 (also known as NineTimesNine) will bring their trademark dark techno to the dance floor with fellow techno titans the Amnesia favourite Andres Campo and Berghain resident Kobosil alongside sets from Luca Donzelli, Marco Faraone and Nina Kraviz.

“At Amnesia, it is a new birth every year with the same magic happening year after year when the first crowd gets into the club to enjoy the music, dance and create unique memories with us,” Schweitzer says.”

While Amnesia’s opening party will kick off the season as representative of the island’s historic venues, this year also promises to provide plenty of epic nights from some of the area’s newer spots.

Ushuaïa Ibiza and Hï Ibiza, both run by Ushuaïa Entertainment on the Playa d’en Bossa strip have made waves over the past decade. Ushuaïa Ibiza, founded in 2011 was ranked as the number 4 club in the world in DJ Mag’s annual Top 100 Clubs poll, while Hï Ibiza, which was born out of the closure of Space in 2016, opened 2017 and celebrates its third consecutive year at the top spot of the DJ Mag Top 100 Clubs list. For context, Amnesia is no slouch on this list, featuring at no. 8 this year.

Hï Ibiza has already hosted its opening party for the season, in late April. The party also featured a set from Honey Dijon alongside other DJs TSHA, Adam Beyer, Jamie Jones, Carlita, and Loco Dice.

Yann Pissenem, Founder, CEO and owner of Ushuaïa Entertainment and the two clubs said of the dual high rankings: “We are deeply honoured to be named the World’s No. 1 Club by the readers of DJ Mag once again. This is a real testament to the support of our incredible community, and this award is as much yours as it is ours.”

“As we celebrate this extraordinary milestone, we remain deeply committed to raising the bar, delivering unparalleled experiences, and redefining the future of club culture. We cannot wait to welcome you all back again this summer!”

With Hï Ibiza already in the swing of things, it expects over 700,000 clubbers to enter its doors over a 120-event summer that will feature over 500 DJs. Lighting up the impressive dancefloors adorned by its huge LED screen that performers can utilise to make unique shows, some of the big names expected to turn up this year include ANTS, Armin van Buuren, Calvin Harris, Defected, Martin Garrix, Swedish House Mafia, and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.

A particular highlight of Hï Ibiza and Ushuaïa Ibiza’s upcoming season is the return of David Guetta’s legendary F*** I'm Famous! One of the longest-running parties on the island, presented by DJ Mag’s no.1 DJ himself, Guetta will be joined by other legends Afrojack, Armin van Buuren and Becky Hill among many more for weekly events every Monday from 3 June to 7 October all year.