Guest Commentary by VJ Ocean
Photos by THT
Ibiza, Spain (The Hollywood Times) 5/8/22 – My first time at Velvet Ibiza! I was lured by a few ecstatic reviews (I assume by friends of the organizers) and the promise of sunshine and pool parties.
I am single and came alone (at the last minute, a friend of mine living in Barcelona joined). We arrived at 4 pm at the hotel where it all started. The rooms were not ready and it took FIFTY minutes to check us in. We were tired from the trip and standing on a queue for an hour to get the keys. Then, the rooms had zero internet, and there was zero internet in the lobby as well. I work online; I am not on vacation per se. I ended up extremely stressed searching the area for internet, getting kicked out of a cafe for staying 1 hr on the computer there with “just a coffee” until finally someone showed me the lobby of a nearby hotel and I had to walk a few kilometres every day back and forth to work there. I feel the least the organizers could have done is to make sure there is wifi. I met other working and super stressed people who were considering renting a room in a hotel with wifi.
But that’s just the beginning. I didn’t meet a single person who didn’t have complaints about their room. Some had no electricity, others had no water (??!!!), others had no working AC and were freezing through the nights; even after supposedly the AC was fixed it still didn’t work. Others had leaks and flooding (I did too); others were 3 people in the room but the hotel only gave them 2 keys which made life for them hard as they had to look for each other in crowds etc. the hotel told them it only gives 2 keys per room. Since Velvet Ibiza offered a 3 person package, the organisers should have made sure the hotel provided an extra key for the 3rd guest.
I feel that when you pay a decent amount of money you shouldn’t struggle so much! Some people came from as far as Israel, US, and Canada…. Not to mention, weather was terrible the first 2.5 days (half the festival). The organizers had NO plan B. There were no events, you couldn’t even swim in the pool (temperature is around 18 degrees in the pool; I mean you could if you’re super fit I guess). They did a speed dating event the first night— I couldn’t even find it; thank god my friend saw me lost and took me to the back where the event was happening. They didn’t do it properly though: we just talked for 2 mins with different people but you are supposed to write down who you’re interested in and see if you match with someone. They didn’t do it so I didn’t know if anyone was interested and didn’t approach. I mean, if you do something, you should do it properly! There is a reason why speed dating is done as it is.
If you are single and looking to meet people, Velvet Ibiza is NOT the place. If you are in a big group of people looking to spend a few days on Ibiza, then maybe it is worth it idk. I wouldn’t come again. The idea is great, the execution is terrible. People spend their hard-earned money and take the little days off they have for vacation: if you take their money, you really should make sure they get what they pay for. Again, I don’t drink; maybe for some people free drinks all day regardless of the weather and the hotel is worth it idk. This is just my own personal subjective view; please decide for yourself! (Tip: if you’re single, for this kind of money you can sublet a room in Berlin for a whole month in the summer and I promise you will have a TON more opportunities to meet queer women).