Ibiza’s Clubs Turned Quiet

Luke Dyson Photography – Stormzy Ibiza Rockets Hotel

Ibiza council sanctioned nine clubs in the Spanish island’s west over noise complaints made in summer 2017, forcing most of them to close at least for a day during tourist season.

The clubs are located in the party district of San Antonio. Without revealing the club’s names, Diario de Ibiza reported that six clubs of the nine “offenders” would be forced to close for one day, another one for two days, another one for 13 days – serving two penalties – and one that will have to close its doors for two weeks as of June 1.

The council also charged the establishments fines of euro 9,051 ($10,900) in total. It is dealing with 44 more cases that also didn’t follow the noise level regulations last summer and that are looking at another euro 34,480 ($41,000) in total fines.

In 2016, Ibiza’s city council said it wanted to prevent beaches, hotels and restaurants from turning into techno clubs. The council claimed that the tourism act, introduced by the former president of the Balearic Islands José Ramón Bauzà in 2012, “gave the green light to virtually any type of leisure activity almost anywhere,” Diario de Ibiza reported back then.

This led to music being played all day in every corner of San Antonio, with beaches turning into DJ areas, restaurants advertising techno sessions on their menus, and hotels becoming open-air discos.

The council intends to curb the opening of new tourist establishments with secondary music offerings in order to give residents a break. Besides restricting the noise levels to 65 dB in the day and 55 dB at night, it also reduced the legal opening hours. It follows the example of another city on Ibiza, Santa Eulària, which introduced similar measures in 2013.