We were very excited at the prospect of an ocean-side festival in Ibiza. Now, we can’t complain about spending our whole summer on The White Isle but we do miss the festivals that prop up back home in the UK. That magical weekend were you can lose yourself in a muddy field with your nearest and dearest. However, on Friday 29th August we got a taste of festival fun right on our doorstep at the Marina Botafoch Ferry Terminal.
The party series that began back in July in the UK in Weston-super-Mare was on its last leg, ending with style on the White Isle. The finale in Ibiza is where Corona Sunsets looked like they’d saved the best until last with a superstar line up boasting the likes of Disclosure (live), Maya Jane Coles, Bondax, Rob Da Bank, Eton Messy and Nightmares on Wax.
Disclosure have certainly been the flavour of the summer – being on everyone’s ‘to see’ list this year, headlining festival after festival as well as making appearances in Space and Ibiza Rocks Hotel this season. But listening to them live at a festival was something we were really looking forward to.
In the distance to approaching the festival, you could see the yellow flags flapping in the distance, welcoming you to to the venue. Inside we were instantly impressed with the set up. Walking into the main stage area, it was impossible to miss the brightly lit Corona Sun on stage behind the acts twinkling and changing colour.
We arrived mid way through Bondax’s performance which was incredible against the backdrop of the huge glistening Corona Sun on stage as the sun was starting to set. Maya Jane Coles was up next and it felt like the perfect time of the evening for some tech-house beats. Coles kept the set relatively light considering the venue and the time of night she was playing but the crowd were really enjoying the set, dancing to her beats.
The festival site was imaginative and colourful, everything you would expect so a huge well done to the production team on making the 10 hour festival extravaganza look so impressive. The festival featured market stalls, food stalls and fun photo booths to entertain the crowd between sets.
The vibe was happy and relaxed throughout the course of the day and evening, everyone was feeling that festival feeling but with no risk of rain and no wellies in sight. Of course most people had a Corona in hand but the favourites for us were the Corona cocktails. The mixologists were especially flown in to ensure we all had a perfectly blended Corona cocktail – all three on offer were utterly delicious.
The current darlings of dance music, Disclosure were booked to end the show. The duo who have risen to dizzy new heights in the past year weren’t anything short of incredible. They made their way through Latch, White Noise, When a Fire Starts to Burn among others. Eliza Doolittle surprised the crowd to join the boys sing You & Me much to the delight of the crowd. They ended with my personal favourite Help Me to Lose My Mind which at that stage of the night and after a few too many Corona cocktails I wasn’t needing too much help with that.
The festival ended with hundreds of smily, happy faces walking out onto Marina Botafoch on a beautiful warm evening no doubt looking to hit one of the super-clubs to top their night off.
It’s not all about, beer, music and fun though, to coincide with the global party series, Corona SunSets launched an initiative to restore the pristine nature of beaches around the world. Through a partnership with the Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) – a leading environmental NGO, and their global Blue Flag Initiative, Corona SunRise – Save the Beach will catalyze local communities to advocacy and action. With every beach adopted and restored, they’ll recognize the shared effort through access to SunSets Festivals.
We certainly hope the Corona Sunsets festival is back next year. It was a refreshing change from stomping the night away in the clubs. A new musical experience that will go down a storm in Ibiza – let’s see who else does a similar thing next year too…
