Dubai Paradise club night: How do you recreate the hedonism of Ibiza in the Middle East?

Dubai's nightlife is booming, and clubbing is on the rise. But can Ibiza’s famously unfettered spirit really survive in a conservative culture?

Paradise at Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE (Jure Ursic)

Ibiza is renowned for its hedonistic drink-and-drug-fuelled club nights, where revellers from all over the world come together to party into the early hours, and lose their inhibitions. The Middle East, on the other hand, could hardly be further from this way of life. And yet Ibiza club night, Paradise, has just held its first event in Dubai.

This is a place where it’s technically illegal to stay in the same room with your partner if you’re not married, a place where women are encouraged to keep their skin covered despite the scorching heat, and a place where drug use can land you with a prison sentence or worse. How on earth do you take Ibiza’s leading club night and make it work in this city?

In fact, Dubai already has a developed and increasingly vibrant nightlife scene. In a city associated with wealth, extravagance and ridiculously ostentatious building design, it’s perhaps no surprise that global restaurant and club chains are taking note and moving in. The likes of Burger and Lobster and upmarket French eatery Bagatelle now call Dubai home, alongside bars such as the infamous Parisian club Buddha Bar and Ibiza’s Blue Marlin.

However, the bulk of Dubai’s bar and club scene is to be found nestled within the city’s plethora of hotels and resorts, from the extremely high-end Armani/Privé in the Armani Hotel to ex-pat favourite, People by Crystal in the Raffles Hotel.

Dubai’s nightlife acts as an indulgent escape, albeit one that attempts to strike a balance between the conservatism of the Middle East and the intoxicating headiness of club culture. However, with tourism on the up, an emerging electronic music scene, and more and more globally renown club nights making their way over to the UAE, the balance between pleasure-seeking and conservatism could well be shifting.

Paradise at Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE (Jure Ursic)

Paradise is one such night. A sybaritic stalwart of the Ibiza clubbing scene, in Dubai it was held at the aptly named Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE, curated by Hot Creations boss and electronic heavyweight Jamie Jones.

Drawing some of the world’s best electronic DJs, the likes of Stacey Pullen, Richy Ahmed and TIGA took to the decks to entertain a crowd made up of tourists, expats and locals – not unlike the crowd you’d see in Ibiza. Speaking to a barman about why Dubai natives were coming down, he attributed their attendance to a love electronic music rather than a particular desire to go clubbing or party. But this may change as the scene establishes itself.

Stacey Pullen, the Detroit native who’s climbed to the top of the electronic music world over the past few years, certainly believes that Dubai is moving forwards as a destination.

“When I first came here, all this way to what I thought was the desert, I was surprised,” he says. “When you arrive, you see this whole new world of prosperity and prospects, dance, life, and culture. It’s come a long way since I first came back in 2014.”

It’s attracting big names too: in the past five years, the likes of Carl Cox, Seth Troxler and Marco Carola have all played in Dubai.

But how can the hedonism of Ibiza be truly replicated within a Middle Eastern culture? Pullen is optimistic. “I think that the fact that you have so many other different cultures here in Dubai helps to replicate the togetherness and energy that Ibiza nights are famous for. The fact that you have influencers from all walks of life combined with those that live here is aiding the notion that Dubai is a legitimate clubbing destination. And it’s only going to get better.”

Stacey Pullen plays Paradise at Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE (Jure Ursic)

Ryan Snr is the general manger at Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE. “Dubai may not be as louche and full of naughty glamour as Ibiza,” he concedes. “However, we have managed to find the balance between respecting and embracing the Middle Eastern culture and successfully creating the bohemian, Ibiza-spirited vibe.”

Attending their opening night, the relaxed daytime pool party atmosphere and the nighttime revelry both felt distinctly familiar, while the environment was one that could have easily been mistaken for Miami or Ibiza.

However, there are still some people who treat Dubai with apprehension. “For me, a gig just came up and I said yes, it was as simple as that,” says Pullen. “It wasn’t something I was afraid of. However, some of my DJ friends were a bit more uneasy because of things like cultural politics.”

As a clubber at Paradise, the cultural attitudes to drink, drugs and sex were in evidence throughout the night. To not be able to even kiss your partner for fear of reprisal at a club night is rather strange for Western ravers; to not see anyone hooking up at all at a night attempting to recreate the hedonism of Ibiza is even stranger.

But while it may hardly be debauched, there is a lot of local love for this growing scene. “The locals and expats that call the UAE their home love and support the fast-growing electronic music scene here,” claims Snr. “They are all very electronic music-savvy, lifestyle-conscious and well-travelled. The scene here is ever evolving, as it is in the rest of the world. It will be just in the right place in five years.”

To my mind, the first ever Paradise in Dubai was a huge success in terms of the quality of the music on offer, the mood of the crowd and in creating an idyllic setting. However, the night failed to showcase the local music community in Dubai.

This is a wider issue within this rapidly expanding city: more money, more tourism, more attractions, and more fame are coming at a cost, which is the loss of a certain homegrown identity.

This will hopefully change in time. More money and renown will strengthen the scene, which should in turn provide new opportunities for emerging DJs from Dubai to take the lead, Pullen suggests. “I’m waiting to hear artists from Dubai. It’s still early, but it’ll be interesting to see how the scene cultivates the electronic artists here. You have the clubs, you have the people, you have the infrastructure. We just need the artists.”

Who better, after all, to ensure that the spirit of Ibiza takes on a distinctly Middle Eastern flavour?