A night to remember with Tïesto at [UNVRS]

As part of my role as Social Media Coordinator here at Ibiza Spotlight, naturally I find myself in the club more than at home most weeks. Some nights blur into one for me; most are great, others become ones you know you’ll still be talking about years later. Monday night at [UNVRS] was firmly in the latter category.

I went in on Monday knowing the lineup was a strong one, but I don’t think I was quite prepared for just how big the night would feel. With Tiësto headlining, Dundee trailblazer Hannah Laing bringing the energy and [UNVRS] doing what [UNVRS] does best with its ridiculous production, this was easily one of my favourite nights of the summer so far.

S3ppa got things moving nicely, setting the tone without giving too much away too early. Then my pal Hannah Laing stepped up, and suddenly there was a noticeable shift from warm-up energy to peak-time territory.

Hannah absolutely tore through her set. It was hard and fast, and full of the kind of tracks that made it almost impossible to stand still. She had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand, singing, bouncing and losing the plot in the best possible way. When The Mackenzie’s Innocence came on, the whole room erupted.

But my favourite Hannah moment actually came after her set. Instead of heading straight backstage, she came out into the crowd and carried on dancing with everyone else. There was something really lovely about seeing her properly enjoy the atmosphere she had just helped create. No ego, just Hannah in the middle of the dancefloor having a good time, like the good ol' days before she became the DJ instead of the raver. Those little moments are often the ones you remember most.

Big don Tiësto was on next. From the off, it felt like a trip through the dance music memories of an entire generation. There was plenty of nostalgia, but it never felt like a trip down memory lane for the sake of it. Tracks like deadmau5’s Strobe and Gareth Emery's Concrete Angel slotted perfectly into the journey, taking us through some of those defining sounds of the early 2000s and beyond. While Soul Central's House classic Strings of Life even got a rousing spin as he teased the crowd through the genres.

Of course, Tiësto’s own catalogue was always going to be a huge part of the night. When Adagio for Strings dropped, I had one of those proper Ibiza pinch-me moments. You could feel how much that record meant to everyone around me. It’s one thing hearing a classic track in your headphones, but hearing thousands of people react to it together, inside a club of [UNVRS]'s immense proportions, is something else entirely.

Then came Silence. And this was the moment that really got me.

The energy in the room changed shifted instantly. People were still dancing, but there was something much more emotional in the air. I spotted people with tears in their eyes, completely lost in the track. It was pure euphoria.

Looking back, the whole night just worked. The artists created a beautiful journey from start to finish, with S3ppa easeing us in, Hannah absolutely blowing the doors off, before Tiësto took us on a nostalgia-filled, emotional trip through decades of dance music.

I’m giving it a very easy 10/10. There are still plenty of weeks left in the Ibiza season, but if this is what we’ve got still to come, I’m very excited.

Take a bow guys. That was some night.

Words by Caoimhe Barr