For those who don't know this about me, I lived on the island of Ibiza between 2013 and 2017. I started visiting the island in 2011 after studying the Ibiza Spotlight party calendar throughout my teens before working for the company from 2014 to 2018.
Season Five of The Blueprint is going to focus on the brands that changed my life while living on the island. After sharing my biggest lesson from working for FUSE at the same time I worked for Ibiza Spotlight, it's time to share my biggest lesson from a party that at the time was so closely connected to FUSE - tINI and the Gang.
What is tINI and the Gang?
tINI and the Gang is an event brand by tINI in Ibiza. The residency now takes place at Ibiza Underground every Tuesday night throughout the season. Before tINI and the Gang set up camp at Underground, it was an open-air event on the beach of Playa d'en Bossa.
What was so special about it?
Four things that made tINI and the Gang so special were:
programming
open-air vibes
the line-ups
the community
Let's break these four things down.
The Programming
Every Wednesday after work, I knew tINI and the Gang were waiting for me on the beach in Playa d'en Bossa.
For an Ibiza residency to work, you need good programming. tINI and the Gang slotted in perfectly between all of the leading parties in the Ibiza 2013/14 season.
One of the best ways to build a business is to build around what already exists. If Circoloco and Cocoon own Mondays, Carl Cox takes place on a Tuesday, Paradise and FUSE are on Wednesday, ENTER is on Thursday and Music On is on Friday, why try and compete with them when you can programme your event at a time when your ideal target audience needs something to do on Wednesday afternoon? That's exactly what tINI and her gang did.
tINI and the Gang would begin around 5 PM. tINI would finish her set at midnight and the dance floor immediately had two choices to carry on - walk to FUSE at Sankeys or jump in a taxi and head to Paradise at DC-10.
At this point, tINI and the Gang was a free party. It became a seasonal tradition for workers to head down to the beach and hang out with friends while clued-in tourists from all over the world dancing on the front row. What I loved about this party was how it appealed to an audience from all around the world.
Open Air Vibes
tINI and the Gang was a wooden shack, a neon light sign and the open air. There was no production other than some carefully placed red lighting, you could bring your booze and dance on the beach.
Planes from the nearby airport flew over you, the sky was pink and the ocean waves gently came in behind you. tINI and the Gang felt like a one-stage Sunwaves Festival but paid its respects to the glory days of Ibiza's daytime parties and afterparty scene at Bora Bora and the early days of Ushuaia before some rich people built some hideous-looking towers on the beach.
Daytime events on the beach are dearly missed on the island.
The Music
Okay, so let's just run through some of the lineups tINI and the Gang used to put on. Chad Andrew, Randel M, David Gtronic, Bella Serris, Molly, Dyed Soundorom, Enzo Siragusa, Archie Hamilton, Bill Patrick and Guti were all regulars.
Above is one of the old flyers that shows you that event brands used to rely on Facebook Cover Photos to announce lineups back in 2014. Not an Instagram Story in sight. Things were simpler back then.
The Community
This is one of the things that so many artists are desperately missing right now - a community. The best thing about tINI and the Gang was that you felt like you were a part of something.
Alongside the world-class artists and incredible setting was something so incredibly simple - stickers.
The star of this whole party was tINI herself. If you arrived early enough, tINI was there looking after the gang - the dance floor. tINI would be greeting her guests on the beach, posing for photos and handing out stickers.
Stickers were a big part of the brand awareness campaigns at this point in Ibiza with ENTER.'s black dot being found everywhere. More on that next week on The Blueprint.
