October has arrived and with it brought those rainy days that Ibiza residents have been longing for. I won't say much about rain and water as you can read all about that in Kirk's weekly bulletin.
This past week has seen the closing parties of all the main discotheques on the island.
Pacha, Privilege, Amnesia and Space have all said goodbyes to the summer.
Amnesia was the first discotheque to close its doors with a special "see you next year" party on Saturday 22nd September.
Amnesia's neighbouring discotheque Privilege waited until the following weekend (Saturday 29th) before hosting their end of season party.
Ten Ibiza resident DJ's, a Cuban circus and many performers kept the thousands of clubbers dancing and entertained until the early hours of the morning.
A unique firework display at the end of the night made sure that Privilege went out with a bang, until next summer that is.
For those people who didn't get enough with Privilege's closing party, Space discotheque was an enticing "carry on".
"We love Sundays", one of the most successful promoters on the island this summer, held a 22-hour dance extravaganza at Space on Sunday 30th September.
Carl Cox, Timo Maas, Erick Morillo, Sven Vath were only some of the top-name DJ's that played to a packed venue.
After being voted "best club in the world" in the Dancestars Awards, Space proved just how good summer 2001 has been for them.
Pacha discotheque also decided to celebrate their last summer party on Saturday 29th September, the same day as Privilege.
A free drink for all that attended was one of Pacha's ways of saying thank you to all the clubbers that have filled their dance floor through out the summer season.
The Saturday night party was also used as a way to welcome in the winter season, as Pacha discotheque will remain open every weekend through out the winter.
Es Paradis, one of San Antonio's main discotheques, will be the last to close this year. Saturday 6th October is the date chosen by the discotheque to host their traditional last water party of the season.
With the discotheques now closed, there are no more pre-parties to celebrate. The "sunset strip" (Mambo, Café del Mar, Coastline, etc.) in San Antonio are also packing-up for the season.
Now that summer 2001 is almost over, the San Antonio Town Hall has already started making plans about how to keep San Antonio's growing nightlife under control.
Just a couple of weeks ago I told you about Privilege and Amnesia discotheques having to remain closed for one day after repeatedly disobeying the laws regarding both noise and closing times.
Well, now with the discos closed, bars and pubs are the latest target of San Antonio Council with 14 bars having their outside speakers shut down last week.
This move was put into action by San Antonio's Home Secretary, Jose Juan Ferrer, who declared: "Let this be a warning to all businesses in San Antonio. This is how we will be functioning in 2002".
The 14 bars, mostly along San Antonio's coastal areas (Paseo Maritimo), had their outside speakers sealed on Friday 28th September.
The bars are losing part of their sound systems because they have ignored constant warnings from the Policia Local (Local Police).
In future, bars will be forced to keep all speakers inside their premises to avoid any more disturbances to the neighbours.
Jose Juan Ferrer also said: "The loud noise from speakers on bar terraces is not the only problem in San Antonio. Occupying the footpath with public telephones and vending machines that don't have permits is also a problem that we will tackle in the near future".
Even though the summer season has almost ended, Ibiza is still attracting people from all over the world. In most cases people come to the island for pleasure while others arrive here on business.
One of these "business trips" has been made by the leading German Television Company ZDF.
Although you might think that there isn't much to see in Ibiza now that winter is approaching, ZDF think differently.
ZDF have chosen Ibiza for the filming of a new music programme called "Fraumschiff-Melodien".
This new television programme will travel to ten different Mediterranean locations filming a video-clip of the ten most popular German pop stars.
Filming started in Gibraltar on Sunday 30th September and then travelled to Malaga on Tuesday 2nd October to film a video-clip with flamenco artist Montesano.
On Wednesday 3rd October, ZDF arrived in Ibiza with Simone, an Austrian singer, famous for coming second place in the 1990 Eurovision song contest.
Dalt Vila (Ibiza Old Town) was the place chosen by the directors for the six-hour "shoot".
Roads had to be closed-off to the general public during the filming as absolute peace and quiet was required to achieve the desired effect.
The filming of the ten-part programme will be concluded on Tuesday 9th October in Rome.
ZDF will then fly back to Germany to add the finishing touches to the programme, which will then be broadcast on Sunday 14th October at 6pm on the German television networks.
Another production team on the island at the moment is the American Company Alpha Beta Films International.
They are here to film their latest project; a romantic comedy made for the big screen entitled "Welcome to Ibiza". They are also hoping it will be made into a television series.
The North American film director David Winters is in charge.
The film will star actors Mariano Alameda, a famous Spanish actor, and McKenzie Aston, known for his role with Sandra Bullock in "Love and War".
As most of the scenes will be shot on the island, filming will last for several months.
The story is centred around three American girls who arrive in Ibiza after inheriting a beach bar and their different relationships with people they meet on the island.
Hundreds of people are needed to take part in "Welcome to Ibiza", so many people that Alfa Beta Films International are having a difficult time finding enough. Advertisements for four hundred extras aged between 18 and 35 have been placed in local newspapers.
David Winters has promised that "Welcome to Ibiza" will be completed in time to enter next years Cannes Film Festival and he will be hosting a world premiere party in Ibiza in March or April next year.
That's the good news, now some bad news
Ibiza's private medical centres have made headlines this week after the Guardia Civil (Civil Guards) discovered that the privately owned medical centre "Ibidialyse" in Santa Eulalia were dumping their medical waste in a field in San Agustin.
The field, beside one of the employee's houses, was being used as a dumping ground for all sorts of materials such as dirty bandages, used syringes and various plastic containers.
Nine of these containers, containing toxic waste, were found in a hole in the field, "probably waiting to be incinerated", according to the Guardia Civil.
A full investigation is now underway to discover why this has happened and, hopefully ensure that it won't happen again.
Public health care is also in the news this week after Can Misses Hospital (the local public health hospital) employees staged protest outside the hospital on Thursday 4th October.
Nurses, paramedics, auxiliary nurses, etc. were protesting because a new agreement signed by the Ministry of Health and donated to all hospitals by the Spanish government have awarded a 5,000 million pesetas grant (equivalent to a pay rise) to group B medical staff (doctors, surgeons, physicians, etc.) only.
According to Rosa Planells, head of the Sindicato de Auxiliares de Enfermeria (Nursing Auxiliary Syndicate), "only 20% of Can Misses' staff can be classified into group B which means that 80% of our staff will not receive a pay rise".
Planells also said: "This is not our only problem. Can Misses hospital is in desperate need of more staff and the pay rise problem is the last thing we need at the moment".
Can Misses employees will be on strike every Thursday until an agreement is reached.
So you residents, if you're planing to be sick, avoid Thursdays until further notice!
Also, if you are planning to escape the island for Christmas you better leave now as practically every flight around the Christmas period is fully booked. The situation has not been helped this year with the schools breaking-up for the holidays on Friday 21st December and Iberia deciding to cancel a large number of direct flights to the mainland.
If you are quick you can still book a seat on a flight to Mallorca which will enable you to connect with flights to the rest of Europe.
But be warned Iberia and Air Europa have increased a one-way ticket to Mallorca or the mainland by 1,300 pesetas, which are 8 Euro in new money. See you at the travel agents!
Louise Wright
louisewright@ibizahistoryculture.com