Millions of tourists visit Ibiza’s Old Town every year. With its old streets, alleys and cathedrals, it’s easy to see why countless people become enchanted with the island’s capital. However, in the last couple of decades, Ibiza Town has become famous for an entirely different reason: Clubbing. With Ibiza Town and the island of Ibiza now playing host to some of the world’s most exclusive nightclubs such as Pacha and Amnesia, a whole different layer of tourism has emerged with hardcore clubbers and dance music fans discovering what the island has to offer.
The latest addition to Ibiza Town’s extensive nightlife platter is a club come restaurant named Heart. The unique club, which provides guests with a three-pronged experience of food, dance and musical performances and DJs, is the brainchild of Albert and Ferran Adrià – the world-famous chefs renowned for their Michelin three-star restaurant elBulli – and Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil.
Belgian-based Arf & Yes were responsible for coming up with a lighting concept for the main part of the experience, and called upon the services of 112 Rogue R1 Washes supplied by Spanish distributor Stonex Show Lighting.
“The concept is nothing like a normal club,” commented Ignace D’Haese, of Arf & Yes. He continued: “It’s more like a Vegas show in a way, with many evolving parts of the show. It has got nothing to do with a normal Ibiza club.”
Heart club consists of three areas, the terrace – a pop up food terrace on the roof, the supper club – where dinner and drinks are served as part of an immersive performance, and the club with electronic music from DJs. Each night guests are presented with a sumptuous three-course meal followed and intertwined with a varying programme of performances lasting three hours.
With the bulk of the evening taking place in the Supper Club, Arf & Yes were tasked with creating a lighting concept that could adapt to the differing situations and ambiances of the evening.
“The main challenge for us was that we weren’t designing a lighting concept for one event or room as such. The Supper Club is transformed several times throughout the course of the evening, and so do the lighting requirements.
“We introduce new elements in the lighting gradually to correspond with the changing phases of the evening. In this sense, the Rogues are the key instruments in defining and bringing about change in mood and atmosphere.”
D’Haese’s concept ensures that the Rogues foster a warm atmosphere at the beginning of the evening, and then as the evening progresses, the atmosphere becomes noticeably cooler. That said, one of the key challenges for Arf & Yes was to find a solution to light both dancers and musicians performing on the stage and creating a suitable atmospheric lighting for the exquisite dinner; two completely different parts of the evening, which nevertheless intertwine.
“We needed to take into consideration the fact that we were required to create lighting conditions suitable for both the dining experience and the performances, and for that we needed a versatile lighting fixture. The Rogues were the perfect fixture, because they can wash colour delicately and perform accordingly during full on show lighting, making them highly adaptable for all intents and purposes.
“Even during dessert there are changes happening already with the lighting. You might not realise it, but the Rogues are able to subtly aid the transition in ambiance. The Rogues are key to enabling a smooth transition between the stages of the evening.”
Although the Rogues were limited with respect to the height from which they could be hung from the ceiling, they were nevertheless still able to achieve excellent colour mixing. Ignace continued: “The relatively low ceiling height in the Supper Club had made us question whether the height for the colour mixing would be sufficient, but the Rogues were able to achieve vibrant warm colours with the space we were given.”
In the first couple of months since opening, Heart has already seen famous bands such as Duran Duran and the Chemical Brothers take to the stage. With the Rogues playing such an important part in building the atmosphere of the Supper Club, Ignace and his team at Arf & Yes are extremely pleased with the result.
