Tuesday afternoon saw San Antonio's worst kept secret come to life when Fatboy Slim turned up ‘unannounced'. Every was bed taken, those lucky enough to have a balcony had a fatastic view, the pool was comfortably full and excitement levels were peaking. Once again cementing our hunch that San Antonio would be the place to hang out in Ibiza this summer.
After a quick lap of honour to salute fans and pose for an inundation of selfie requests, the selfless Norman Cook bounded onstage and eased into poolside booth. In doing so, the veteran became the first international DJ of renown to step behind the decks at a club on Ibiza in 2020.
Opening the show with Rolling Stones' Sympathy For The Devil fused together with Praise You, Norman seemed genuinely pleased to meet us and he couldn't hide his joy - clearly relishing the opportunity to be playing in front of a live audience once again. He pushed through a 3-hour set filled with classics from his back catalogue, trademark mash-ups and personal edits.
Dancing was strictly confined to the safety of the swimming pool or the bedroom balconies throughout.
Nevertheless, Ibiza Rocks set out to proudly defend its Safe Tourism Certified Seal, the maximum certification in Spain for Covid-19 health risk prevention, issued by the ICTE. This meant the security guards had their work cut out maintaining order, whenever excitement broke out around the beds. The offenders can be excused. It is just the default reaction to Mr Cook's infectious jacking delivery.
Fatboy teased the crowd with old favourites, such as the bassline hook from Rapper's Delight in Purple Disco Machine's classic, Move or Not, the urgent tribal drums of Sol by KC Lights, before really pushing the limits of everyone's ability not to jump around, with Dancin', Dancin', Dancin' by Mat.Joe.
Highlight of the afternoon came when Norman was joined behind the decks for a family reunion by son Woody and, lockdown internet sensation, daughter Nelly. The Cook trio took the atmosphere in the pool to the next level, whipping up a frenzy in the booth to Erick Morillo's Cartagena.
The Cook creative gene appears to be hereditary on this evidence - families that dance together, stay together!
Everyone was revelling in the hot afternoon sunshine, especially Fatboy, who egged the crowd on with his trademark adolescent enthusiasm and ear-to-ear smiles. His usual appearances at Ibiza Rocks, and indeed anywhere, warrant sell out scenes as standard. At the start, it did feel slightly odd being afforded so much room. Minutes in, we were so absorbed we had forgotten the unusual circumstances we found ourselves in.
Although this less-than-typical headline set obviously took place under reduced capacity, Norman's outlandish stage persona more than filled the venue's extra space and gave those in attendance exactly what they came for – an event that was, for many (this writer included), the high point of the Ibiza 2020 summer so far.
Maybe we shouldn't expect too many of these shows this summer, but it does raise intriguing question for what else Ibiza Rocks has in mind, in this rollercoaster season? We've got the taste for more…
