Ibizology

Saigo Dicenta is from a famous Spanish family of artists who moved to Ibiza in the 1970s. He grew up there amongst the hippies and freaks and was inspired to become a student of Indian classical music. Saigo is a key part of Ibiza’s live music scene and founded the Sant Joan hippy market to bring music and culture directly into island life.

I’ve always been interested in bird watching so a few years ago I went on one of the excellent walking tours organized by the local authorities here in Ibiza. While most of the group were chatting away in Catalan I found myself strolling along next to a Spanish man who also spoke perfect English, and who is also a journalist like me, but with a focus on a quite extraordinary topic. It’s taken seve...

Ibiza-based writer, Ben Dunwell, has just published the second in a series of novels about the early settlers on the island, who arrived here around 650BC. The Dark Between Our Fires also references the San Juan fire jumping festival which takes place on 23 June each year in this tiny village in the north of Ibiza.

Andrés Coll is a professional Ibizan percussionist and musician who loves to fuse the sounds of Ibizan folk music with other musical traditions. Andrés sees a connection between the music of Africa and Asia and that of Ibiza. Through this blend of different cultures he wants to convey the message that: “We are all human and share the same origins.” Andrés says the folk music of a place is shaped b...

For foreigners like me who are the latest invaders of Ibiza, it is fascinating to delve into the history of this jewel in the Mediterranean Sea. Most of us are vaguely aware that it has been conquered by various cultures over the centuries such as the Phoenicians and Romans. The invasion which led to centuries of Islamic rule in Ibiza before the Christian Catalans arrived is particularly interesti...

We meet Juan Mari “Juanito” who took over the famous Las Dalias hippie market and music venue from his father in the 1980’s. Founded in 1954, Juanito describes how local families from St Carles would come to dance and celebrate with the young men asking the mothers’ permission to dance with their daughters. In those distant days Ibiza was a very different place and Las Dalias has moved with the ti...

For this episode I travel high into the hills above San Vicente to meet the author, environmental activist and film director Rebecca Frayn who has just published Lost in Ibiza. This is a novel about climate change, family dynamics and the different tribes of people who inhabit this island. We talk about the book and explore other Ibiza-related projects Rebecca is involved with.

Emma Salahi is co-producer of a new Ibiza photobook featuring the work of the famous Spanish photographer Oriol Maspons. He visited Ibiza from the 1950’s to the 1980’s and captured the essence of the hedonistic side of the 1980’s, as well as the traditional side of island life. Emma sifted through 500 of Oriol’s images to choose a selection which are full of humour, fun and laughter. Emma also run...

With Ibiza being such an important trans-Mediterranean trading post since the Phoenicians set foot on the island, the seas around the island contain a real treasure trove of ship wrecks. Marine archaeologist Enrique Aragon spends much of his time exploring the area and in this interview reveals how important these remains are for our understanding our island’s history. His work also shows how Ibiz...

'Voyage and Discovery' by Conor O'Brien is an account of the sailor and travel-writer's journey by boat to the White Isle where they moored up in Ibiza harbour for almost a year in 1932. His vivid descriptions of town and country life, as well as the landscapes of the island, are quite riveting. Ibiza's Barbary Press has just brought out a new edition of the book and in this episode I'm joined by...

Regular Ibizology listeners will, by now, be very familiar with the Ibizology intro/outro music. This haunting music was recorded in the 1950’s in Ibiza by the American ethnomusicologist, Alan Lomax. My guest in this episode of Ibizology is the editor of Alan’s Spanish collection of folkloric music. She has developed a deep understanding of Ibiza’s traditional music and how it fits into the family...

For almost 100 years Ibiza’s club Nautico has stood in the city’s harbour, not far from the Formentera ferry terminal. The club, an institution much-loved by Ibicencos, has seen the area around it transformed, modernized and commercialized in tandem with much of the rest of the island. Now the same powerful forces which have altered so much of Ibiza are circling this place. Plans have been drawn u...

The artist, philosopher and musician Dominique Sanson is perhaps most famous in Ibiza for his panel of paintings which depict Ibiza’s from pre-history until modern times. But his art goes way beyond these, with his unique style depicting many topics which highlight the beauty of the island and its inhabitants as well as his sufist beliefs. You can see many examples of his different styles of art b...

With invasive snakes out of control in Ibiza, and local lizards heading for extinction, British-Australian Dean Gallagher has battled to return the island to its previous snake-free state. This has not been easy for Dean, who suffered nightmares about snakes in the early part of his campaign. Even now he performs a ritual to calm each creature before killing it, and says he would prefer to export...

Women have suffered as second class citizens in most traditional, patriarchal societies around the world and Ibiza was no exception. Females had far fewer freedoms and rights than men and were often excluded from secondary education right up until the 1970s and ‘80s. However there was one moment in a woman’s life when she was in control of her destiny, and exerted power over her family and the mal...

Vicent Palermet is one of Ibiza’s foremost experts on landscape history and traditional agricultural practices. We have a fascinating conversation where he describes the evolution of the rural landscape and agriculture since Bronze Age times. He also explains why agriculture has declined and his hopes for the future. Let’s join Vicent at an ancient finca called Ses Hisendes de Cala de Hort where w...

The delightful André Quidu is a famous Ibiza character, whose warmth and humour brings a smile to the face of every customer at Croissant Show, the French bakery and café in La Marina, Ibiza. I was so pleased that André agreed to be interview in late December, and it was just in the nick of time as you will hear. The moustached bon viveur has been in Ibiza for four decades, and his love of the isl...

Pine Tree Island is a new novel by the author Ben Dunwell, set in the dawn of Ibiza’s settlement by the Phoenicians around 650BC. In this interview Ben describes how he became a writer, as well as the highs and lows of the creative process. The podcast was recorded before Christmas and since then, Pine Tree Island has become available on Amazon for international readers, as well as in local booksh...

Professor Francesc Calafell’s research on genes shows how closely connected Ibiza’s native population is to the Catalan invaders of the thirteenth century. In this fascinating episode of the Ibizology podcast Francesc goes on to describe how the people of Spain are more closely related to settlers from the Russian steppes 4,000 years ago than to any subsequent invaders such as the Romans and Moors...

The matanza, or slaughter of the pig, is an ancient rural tradition in Ibiza which would bring together the local people each winter. Killing the pig and preparing the meat was a labour-intensive process which took a day or more and was followed by a night of celebration and feasting. A new exhibition by the publisher and historian Martin Davies brings the matanza to life through the photographs o...

The lost lizards of Ibiza are now a sad fact of life across most of the island of Ibiza. Snakes, first spotted in 2003, are the culprit. They arrived amongst the roots of olive trees imported from the mainland to satisfy the fashion for Mediterranean gardens. Now, thanks to the efforts of Elba Montes, a PhD student, the annihilation of the lizards has been measured for the first time. The sad plig...

In this episode you’re going to meet the architect Rolf Blakstad who has just published, in English, his father Ralph's amazing book which links traditional Ibizan finca design back more than 2000 years to the Phoenicians who settled here from what is now Lebanon. Rolf’s father spent decades roaming the island’s countryside, measuring, drawing and recording the architecture just as the forces of m...

The ecologist and environmental campaginer, Chris Dews, is famous in Ibiza as the founder of Casita Verde near St Jose, which he started in 1993. Chris and teams of volunteers have transformed the place into a model for living with minimal environmental impact. He dreams of one day doing things on a much grander scale on a different site, and has his eye on the vacant land next to Cafe Mambo for a...

The historian, archivist and politician Francesca or Fanny Tur Riera is in charge of the official historical archives of Ibiza and Formentera, which contain documents going back more than 800 years. As well as her work with the archive, Fanny has been politically active, championing the importance of Catalan culture and as a minister for culture and sports for the Balearic islands. Fanny is a resp...

In this episode the writer, publisher, and original Ibizologist, Martin Davies, helps us to bring alive some of the characters living in Ibiza in the 1960s. We delve deeper into the enigmatic figure of Elmyr de Hory, possibly the twentieth century’s greatest art forger. You’ll hear Martin challenge one by one what I had assumed to be the basic facts about Elmyr’s life. Next we take a look at some...