Features
Techno Switches To Hard Rock
This year’s International Music Summit is shifting across Ibiza to the Hard Rock Hotel in Playa D’en Bossa, although hard rock is one of the last things the event is about.
The annual conference, now in its seventh year, has made its name as a major platform for techno, dance and electronic music.
“The irony of the history and name of the hotel is not lost on us – this is a true reflection of how our music is seeping into mainstream culture worldwide and continuing to break down barriers of entry,” explained conference co-founder Ben Turner, head of London-based Graphite Media. “IMS was created so people can debate and be inspired about the future of a technology-driven genre of music, so inevitably our host venue needs to move with the times also.”
The Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza is scheduled to open mid-May and will be the first Hard Rock Hotel to open in Europe.
Palladium Hotel Group, which has a licensing agreement with Hard Rock, has transformed two former Fiesta Hotels, Club Don Toni and Hotel Don Toni, into the Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza.
The IMS (May 21-23) will be its first major event.