How Ibiza's Hedonism Started

Ibiza has long been an island for the outcast and non-conforming, and its history is littered with rock-star anecdotes.

The buildings of Playa d’en Bossa and San Antonio were boarded up, but as we cruised down Ibiza’s pine tree-lined roads in a 1960s Mustang, it didn’t feel like the off-season. Caroline Lilliehook, co-owner of the car and of Mustang Adventures, Ibiza’s first vintage Mustang car-rental business, was in the driver’s seat and we were on our way to discover rock ‘n’ roll in the sleepy, rolling hills of the islan

Or rather, unearth it. “Rock ‘n’ roll is how the music scene got going in the first place on Ibiza,” Lilliehook said. “But most people have forgotten that.”

Ibiza has long been an island for the outcast and non-conforming, from a diaspora of creatives first fleeing Francisco Franco’s Spain in 1936, to hippies throughout the ‘60s chasing the magnetic vibrations of Es Vedra island. Intrigued by how this history transformed into Europe’s wildest party scene, I’d badgered Lilliehook for stories over a tapas lunch. Just how did Ibiza become the go-to place for partygoers, I wondered?

It turned out the answer is rock ‘n’ roll. “But you’ll have to go to Pikes Hotel to find out more,” she said. “That’s where it started.”

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190131-how-ibizas-party-really-started

A local’s guide to Ibiza: 10 top tips

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2019/feb/11/locals-guide-to-ibiza-10-top-tips-bars-restaurants-market