By Andria Kades
Ayia Napa, the country’s party capital, is pumping up to the next level this summer and Twitterland has exploded following announcements that Chris Brown, DJ Snoopadelic (Snoop Dogg), Rudimental, Tim Westwood and many other top acts are all performing.
So is this a comeback for Napa, the party place to be of the late 90s and early 2000s back when Garage music ruled supreme and comparisons with Ibiza were taken seriously? Is Napa back on the party map?
Promoters, agents and businesspeople alike are all unanimous in saying Napa 2015 is definitely zooming up the party ladder once again, but comparisons with Ibiza – if they were ever true – certainly aren’t now, Chris Brown and Snoop Dogg or not.
“Ayia Napa was never on the level of Ibiza and it will never be,” said one expert from the Napa entertainment business who did not wished to be named.
“For us to reach the level of Ibiza all of Cyprus has to turn into a party capital.”
Size, in this case, definitely matters.
“Ayia Napa has four or five, five star hotels. Ibiza has about 60. Ayia Napa has two sets of traffic lights whereas Ibiza…you know what I mean.”
Mario Costaki, CEO at Fully Loaded entertainment company agrees. “It simply doesn’t have the budget to be on Ibiza’s level,” he said.
But Michael Lawrence, a music agent at mn2s in the UK, puts Napa in second place after Ibiza as a party destination.
“It still has a bit of way to go but it’s definitely coming back,” he told the Sunday Mail. “Though it’s wrong to compare the two because people would like their own identity and both have their own appeals.”
This can be seen in the types of people that are attracted to the two party spots. Ibiza attracts higher class visitors “the types of people who in London go to Stonegarden and drive Lamborghinis”, said the Napa entertainment expert.
“When you do get them here, they’re scared of Ayia Napa because you blend in a group. It’s a big party madness but some people like that because everyone is equal.”
Napa’s set up is actually much better, Costaki said, with its compact size being ideal for tourists.
“When you’re in town within five minutes you can get to a venue, a concert at the beach, clubs, parties, after clubs, every club has something to offer,” he said.
“We’ve got places where people can go with shorts, places with heels and places with no shirt on. There’s something for everyone.”
Napa mayor, Yiannis Karousos, says that high class tourists and families are the type the resort wants to attract.
“We too want high class tourists and not the cheap type that walk around naked…come eat at McDonalds, go to a 10 euro open bar and end up falling asleep on the streets,” he said.
Promoters are convinced that this summer’s big acts are bringing in loads of tourists and are the reason hotels and apartments, not only in Napa but in other cities like Larnaca, are fully booked particularly during the weeks of high profile events. But Karousos believes that, although there must be some tourists coming exclusively to watch these performers, June till September months are always busy anyway.
“It’s not because of Chris Brown that we are full. We’re glad these things are happening and they do help in giving Napa more exposure, but our occupancy rate during these months is on average 85 per cent.”
Looking at the digital space, Joe Walker, staff writer at RWD, the youth lifestyle and music magazine in the UK, has definitely spotted people’s excitement on Twitter.
“Chris Brown, in NAPA, say WHAT????? Girls I’m cancelling malia and going there instead #soz”, said one tweet, followed by lots of countdowns to the day they arrive and then: “all I want to say is that Cyprus is goals”.
“The effort seems to be paying off,” said Walker.
In an interview to RWD, Frisco from Boy Better Know said “you can’t really compare the two, it’s two whole different type of vibes. I think Napa was good. I didn’t go last year and I’m not booked to go this year – in the 2007-2010 times, that was when Napa was good.”
Starting in 2009, Lawrence felt that extreme competition led to very unprofessional behaviour from promoters, making agents like himself reluctant to send DJs out to Napa.
“There’s a massive turnaround now over the past few years with more professional people coming in,” he said.
“The level of shows is bigger, better and more organised.”
Even though artists will always prefer Ibiza because of its calibre, he said he was in the midst of negotiations to send artists here in August.
In his view, Napa is tied in second place with Majorca and other party spots like Malia are not even considered as competition to Cyprus’ party capital.
Commenting on the difficult times the Napa clubbing scene went through in recent years, Costaki says “when you’re struggling in business you’ve got two options. Either get cheaper or spend more money to get things back in the long run.”
And this is exactly what is happening, particularly in this year’s huge investment. “Even if we don’t make money out of the performance, the clubs people go to, the places people will go to eat, to stay, to have fun, the water parks, so much money is going to be spent boosting the local economy,” one Napa entertainment source said.
This is what promoters are trying to accomplish, Costaki says.
“A few years ago, these people (newer massive artists) didn’t even know where Cyprus was let alone Ayia Napa. Now they’re tweeting about it telling other artists.”
For Costaki the reason Napa lost a lot of its cache in the later 2000s was its association solely with garage music.
“When garage went down, Ayia Napa went down with it, but now we’re starting a change,” he said, adding that Napa now ranks as the second top party destination.
Of course, when promoters talk about Ayia Napa going down, they are talking specifically about the music scene.
For tourism officials and the mayor, Ayia Napa never went through a phase of decline but has always maintained a high standard as a safe, friendly family destination.
Even so, Karousos applauds the work promoters are putting in and wants clubs to invest so the scene can be more cosmopolitan.
“Don’t get me wrong, we want to utilise these big names that are coming. When Snoop Dogg comes as DJ Snoopadelic we’re going to give him a star on our Ayia Napa Walk of Fame because we want the exposure in places like America.”
The big names
Tim Westwood – Every Sunday at Club Ice
Giggs – July 20, Club Ice
Sigma – July 20, Makronissos Beach Club
Chris Brown – July 28 – Napa Rocks
Chipmunk – July 29 at Club Ice
Stormzy – July 31 at Kandi Beach Party
Jaguar Skills – August 3, Club Ice
Jillionaire from Major Lazer – August 3, Makronissos Beach Club
Snoop Dogg as DJ Snoopadelic – August 9, Makronissos Beach Club
Christy Million – August 14, Castle Club
