- At the last rounabout before the Disco Bus pulls into the station at San Antonio in Ibiza, there is a sculpture of three horses. It may have just been my imagination, but the smallest one looks tired, as if it needs looking after by the other two horses. It's a neat metaphor for an Ibiza virgin's journey out to San Antonio from Ibiza town. Told by many how remarkably small the White Isle is, I was shocked by—and kind of tired after—the lengthy bus ride to San Antonio. When people remarked on how big of a deal Pete Tong's move out here to Eden a few years ago actually was, I now finally understood what they meant.
Tong's successful Wonderland night had previously been based at Pacha, a far more centrally based club on the island. Wonderland at Eden, now in its third year, feels like a perfect home for the BBC radio jock's diverse night. As I stepped off the bus in San Antonio, I heard more English being spoken than anywhere else I had been on the island before. Everybody with a flyer helpfully guided me with "take a left, and walk down the road there, you can't miss it!" Tong Country.
It's a land where, like Come Together, diversity is key. But the consistent vision of its centerpiece resident DJ makes it all work. Jo Mills was playing bouncy tech house as I walked in, which somehow led seamlessly into Riva Starr's Dirtybird/Made to Play-inclined house. Starr's set kept the energy ridiculously high for a little more than 90 straight minutes. Unconcerned with building to anything more than climax after climax due to the time slot, it was banger (a remix of "The Percolator") after banger (a wonderful track that twisted the words "house music" every which way closed things out).
Tong, though, seemed to be the one that everyone was really waiting for. After Starr's relentless set, he hit the reset button and started with almost epic trance. It didn't make sense until the disco ball in the middle of the room lowered, and a girl in an enormous piece of cloth was raised in its place. At just the right moment she emerged from the cocoon and started to resemble Cirque du Soleil. It seemed the perfect soundtrack, and Tong's set remained just as all-encompassing as his wide-ranging tastes would suggest. Once he finished and Layo & Bushwacka! began, though, I looked at my watch. Time to catch the Disco Bus. Either that, or I was going to be one tired pony on the walk home.