On October 9 and 10, Ibiza will play host to the fourth International Nightlife Congress and, with it, the Golden Moon Awards Gala. The former features the unveiling of a list of The World’s 100 Best Clubs and the announcement of one pick for the number one. For the first time ever, selections will be largely based on clubgoers’ picks for favourite clubs across the International Nightlife Association’s Facebook page. It won’t be the awards shows’ first time on iconic Ibiza, set at the sumptuous Ushuaïa Tower.
At last year’s ceremony in Las Vegas, when the honour for “world’s best club” was given to “Omnia Las Vegas,” number-two snaps went out to 2015’s first-place champs, “Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel”. Third prize was nabbed by Brazil’s “Green Valley” and “Pacha Ibiza” came in fourth.
Golden Moon Awards themselves will be based on the nominations and votes received via Facebook. Nominees can be selected until September 3, with voting beginning on the 7th and ending the 25th. A statement by the INA read: “We want club goers themselves to take part in deciding this exclusive list and have enlisted them in nominations and ranking”. In the final selection of top clubs, the public’s vote counts for 30 per cent; the remaining 70 is based on picks of a panel of experts composed of industry luminaries, beverage company execs, tourism insiders and INA members.
In addition to naming and celebrating The World’s 100 Best Clubs, the Gala features honors like Most Developed Nightlife Business, Best Outreach, Best Nightlife Group, Best Sound and Best VIP Service—seventeen awards in all.
As part of the International Nightlife Congress’s fourth year, the awards show enlists a quartet of global experts in exploring four areas of nightlife, like the creation of quality standards and protocol within the industry and success stories as, for instance, Ibiza’s. Organizer Joaquim Boadas cast it as “a gathering of key industry players who regard Ibiza as a benchmark in leisure and entertainment” and asserted “nightlife put Ibiza on the map and it is important we carry that forward”. Abel Matutes Prats, president of the International Nightlife Association and general manager of the Palladium Hotel Group, said he was proud that this event and this gala were celebrated in Ibiza.
Organizers thanked Palladium Hotel Group and the Consell d’Eivissa for supporting the Congress in crusading to raise the bar with professional tourism and nightlife “by creating a forum for shared experiences”. These, they said, “give way to strategies and new tools for improving our image in the industry”.
Thus, the island’s Director of Tourism of the Consell d’Eivissa, Vicent Torres, has explained that “we must all work to improve the supply of our island in all sectors”, so he considered that “this segment should be integrated with others such as the beaches, sports, cultural or gastronomic tourism to continue receiving all kinds of visitors with quality and collaboration as a flag.
Fourth International Nightlife Congress
From 11.30am to 1.30pm on October 9, the first part of the Congress will include Lutz Leichesenring, the chair of Berlin’s “Clubcommission;” Maurizio Pasca, president of both European Nightlife and the Italian Nightlife Association; and Abel Matutes, president of the International Nightlife Association and Palladium Hotel Group’s CEO. The three speakers will propose goals for quality tourism under the banner “The Importance of Nightlife Quality for a Tourist Destination”.
The second segment of the day, “Nightlife and Security,” will take place from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. The roundtable will explore problems and solutions in nightclub security measures and spotlight one worldwide security initiative in particular. Among the participants of that segment are Yolanda Perdomo, the head of the programme for member affiliates of the World Tourism Organization; INA secretary general Joaquim Boadas and Rafael Rodríguez, chairman of Bull Control.
The day’s third segment, “Nightlife and Noise Pollution,” begins at 6.00pm and includes participants like the Eivissa Council’s head of tourism, Vicent Torres, and Ana Espinel, the director of Audiotec.
The fourth and final portion of the conference, “How to deal with binge drinking and drugs,” will take place from 11.00am to 1.00pm the following day. That roundtable discussion, in addition to seeking solutions to the myriad problems posed by street drinking, binge drinking and underage drinking, will deal in everything from substance abuse to outreach. Participants will also discuss the importance of shielding the nightlife industry from the impact of addictive substances, their impact on the nightlife world’s prestige and the industry’s responsibility therein. Of particular importance during that part of the Congress will be the attendance of Andrés García, head of the high-profile training firm Emergency Staff.
Finally, the Congress will also analyse how to prevent sexual assaults, sexist behavior and the use of women as a sexual claim in leisure spaces. A theme that will be addressed from diverse profiles as advertising awareness and will be included in the framework of this Congress. For the island’s director of Equality of the Consell d’Eivissa, Judith Romero, “it has been a good idea to include this theme in this Congress, which complements our campaigns in Ibiza, and advocates disseminating the protocols and instruments to avoid all types of aggressions women in this area. “
