Ibiza: The party's over

The Spanish island of Ibiza has long been home to some of Europe's most hedonistic nightclubs, but this season one of the most famous - Manumission - will not be opening its doors.

Fire-breathing dwarves, topless dancers, high wire acrobats and a live porn show at dawn - despite Bacchanalian competition, one Ibizan club has managed to remain the most riotous night on the White Isle.

The Mediterranean pleasure palace of Manumission has become legendary within the clubbing fraternity - the ultimate getaway for Britain's hordes of party animals who have flocked to the Spanish island in their thousands every year since the veterans of the UK acid house scene fled their industrial urban warehouses in the early-1990s.

But this summer a hedonistic hole will be left in Ibiza's clubbing scene following the news that, for the first time since it was established, Manumission will not open its doors.

Andy and Mike McKay, the two Mancunian brothers who set up the famous club night back in 1994, have remained mysteriously circumspect over why they will no longer be putting on the weekly dance night which cost £200,000 (NZ$518,000) to stage, regularly attracted up to 10,000 clubbers and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's biggest party.

In a brief and cryptic statement the pair said they were planning to take the year off to "tend to their chickens".

Those who know the siblings attribute their decision to a combination of tiredness and a desire to pursue fresh projects.

For Ibiza veterans, the closure of Manumission's doors on Ibiza represents the end of an era.

It defined the excesses of the 1990s superclub generation where thousands of hardcore clubbers would pack into cavernous venues, drop ecstasy tablets and dance till the early hours of the morning in a loved-up haze of heavy beats.

"Manumission was the club that transformed Ibiza into a giant clubbing holiday centre on a grand scale," says Dom Phillips, who edited Mixmag between 1993 and 1998, during Ibiza's clubbing zenith.

"It brought theatre and fun into clubbing. More than any other 1990s superclub - and superclub is exactly what it was - it brought a sort of louche, bohemian sexual decadence to clubbing."

And if sex sells, then Manumission sold it like it was going out of fashion.

There were the urinals shaped like red mouths, the "Manumission Ladies" - a troupe of dancers who stripped and gyrated their way throughout the night while the crowd looked on, and the theme reached its peak in the late Nineties when Mike McKay and his long-term partner Claire Davies began performing live sex shows.

At around this time, the British vice-consul on the island, Michael Birkett, noisily resigned from his post, blaming the "degenerate and out-of-control" behaviour of British clubbers.

"They are dragging us through the mud," he raged.

"Basically I am sick of the behaviour of some of the mainly young British tourists who come here, and of clearing up the mess they cause. I am so angry at the degrading behaviour and the bad name Britain is getting in Europe. I knew it was time to leave."

As soon as other clubs started copying the sex shows, Manumission abandoned them, but the island's reputation as a libertarian bastion of "sun, sea and sex" had been sealed.

Named after the Latin word for the act of freeing a slave, Manumission was first incarnated in Manchester in 1994.

The McKay brothers created the kind of straight and gay-friendly night that they would have liked to go to themselves but couldn't find.

Disillusioned by the violence that often erupted on the Manchester club scene, they moved to Ibiza, where both brothers continue to live to this day.

Mike McKay is often described as the more artistic of the pair while Andy looks after the business side of things.

As soon as they arrived on the island, the brothers began tearing up the clubbing rule book. Until Manumission, most Ibiza clubs had free entry and made their money behind the bar.

By hosting parties in large venues where thousands could attend, the McKays realised that clubbers would be willing to part with £30 on the door - so long as they were promised something spectacular inside. Their formula was rapidly copied.

Instead of relying on big-name DJs, who were often more famous than the clubs where they played, Manumission created its own brand following by putting on show-stopping club nights that bordered on a burlesque variety show.

Each year the theme would change but the premise was the same.

Using a cast of more than 200 people on a main stage, Manumission took an ordinary club night one step further by staging a host of spectacular displays throughout the night which enthralled clubbers.

The brothers' decision to abandon what had been a very successful business model initially puzzled clubbers.

The Mixmag journalist Bridget Mills-Powell, who recently interviewed the McKays, believes they just wanted to move on.

"I always got the feeling that they never did Manumission for the money," she says.

"I think they felt like it was becoming something of an uphill struggle and they were getting a bit sick of it. Ibiza still has plenty of big clubs and a really vibrant scene but nothing will replace Manumission."

Mike McKay has indicated that he wants to make films. Andy will run a series of one-night smaller "Minimissions" in London, Paris, New York and Bali.

Their only presence this year on the White Isle, which an estimated 600,000 Britons still visit annually, will be a few "private parties" exclusively reserved for special guests.

Andy will also run Ibiza Rocks, a club night which has introduced indie bands to the island.

Manumission's competitors, meanwhile, are no doubt relieved that there is one less superclub on the scene. There are already concerns that the current economic downturn will result in a decrease in footfall.

In a bid to attract people to the island, Cream has just announced a host of discounts to UK clubbers who pre-book their tickets.

Whether Manumission will thrive outside of Ibiza, an island where the authorities tend to turn something of a blind eye to the more fusty regulations of the Continent, remains to be seen.

The bondage photographer Ben Westwood, son of Vivienne, is concerned that Manumission's debauched streak may be stifled outside the White Island.

In March he photographed naked Manumission Ladies on a "bucking bronco" for one of the brand's small nights in London.

"The March party was great fun, and the girls were very creative," said Westwood.

"But the problem is in Britain you have to deal with British doormen and security staff.

"I don't like clubs where you want to let go but you keep getting told to stop."

- INDEPENDENT