“No frills, just house”: inside Defected’s sparkling Eden Ibiza season finale in San Antonio

Defected first moved to Eden in 2017, following a long run of residencies on the island since the turn of the millennia. Starting with Pacha in 2000 alongside Ministry of Sound, the label moved to the now-shuttered Booom, then Ushuaïa, and finally the terrace at Amnesia on Tuesdays, before taking a year out to weigh up their next move. “As we were thinking about what to do next, we recognised that there wasn’t much happening for entry-level clubbers in Ibiza,” Wes explains. “There were certain events that gave people access to the more commercial end of pop-dance/house, but not really true house music.”

Both aware of the “huge young person presence” in San Antonio, Wes, and Defected founder and then CEO, Simon Dunmore, decided it was a fitting new home for the residency. At this time, Eden had just undergone a period of swift changes in ownership, and was facing something of an identity crisis. But after a refurb and a return to its paradisiacal name in 2015, the club was firmly on the way up. “It felt like we were both trying to almost rebuild our position in Ibiza,” Wes explains, “so it made sense to join forces. That first season was an incredible season, and we just built from there, really.”

The residency quickly became one of San Antonio’s most popular, attracting both genre newbies and seasoned clubbers with its “no frills, just house” policy. In particular though, the Friday-night party has evolved into something of a rite of passage for those new to the White Isle. It’s an alliance that Rinco Soesman, Director of Eden, prides himself on. “It’s nice to see the kids for the first time coming to Ibiza, coming to Eden, and recognising something that they have at home,” he tells DJ Mag. “People just come for the party and I think that makes Eden really unique. That attitude is also just so ‘Defected’. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you do. If you come for a party, you’re welcome.”