Pacha Club: the precursor of all modern nightclubs-Part 1

It is 1967 and in Sitges, 40 kilometers south of Barcelona, the first Pacha was born.

When Brothers Ricardo and Piti Urgell decide to open a club at the gates of Barcelona they had absolutely no intention of building a company to make millions or to enter history. They just wanted to find a way to have fun and meet pretty girls. The name they chose ‘Pacha’ comes from their love of a beautiful lifestyle.

We are in the 70’s and Spain is under the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco. It is, however, a very fertile period in Spain, in history books it is referred to as a “Spanish miracle”. Despite the rigid local authorities not sharing a passion for nightlife as the Urgell brothers did, on a hot summer day the white streets of Sitges were invaded with leaflets and  posters depicting a black and white eye. On the handwheel there is drawn a blurred eyelid with long, curled eyelashes. The author is the chart Jordi Vila, who for the occasion retouched a picture of the very popular actress Carmen Sevilla in Spain in at that time. Two beautiful models, announce the evening event by turning up at the seaside in a Seat 600 car. It was a sight for tourists and locals.

But six years later, in 1973, a more spiritual and commercial choice  changed not only their lives but also the story of night time entertainment forever. In June of that year, the Urgell brothers decided to buy a plot of land in a well known area of Ibiza near the port. Between the 60’s and 70’s, lbiza became in a short time the center of the European counterculture. Californian hippie groups came to the island looking for a magical and unspoiled place that was a viable summer alternative to India and Morocco. Attracted by the geographic location that favors a great climate all year round and the important spiritual history that the island has with it since the previous ages, the first hippie communities lie in this drowsy island of the Mediterranean surrounded by nature. They don’t leave. The hippie community carries on the island all the values that identify it, from fashionable spirituality, values immediately adopted by the alternative jet set. Stylists, artists, actors, and musicians begin to reach Ibiza with the first charter flights in history seeking new forms of art and hedonism. In a short time, Ibiza becomes an icon of fashion and trend, creating a style of its own, perfectly balanced between spiritual and material, between endless nights and absolute silence. It is in this cultural ferment that in June 1973 Ricardo and Piti Urgell inaugurate what is still today considered the father of all modern nightclubs: the Pacha of Ibiza. The club is located in the harbor area, on the part of Marina Botafoch, today a luxurious quay overlooking its apartments and beautiful yachts. Forty years ago, on the evening of its opening, Pacha was the only building present on that part of the harbor. A typical farmhouse, a finca emersed in wild vegetation.

In the 70’s, the Pacha of Ibiza breathes an air of incredible freedom. The famous share the track with ordinary people, models and actresses mingle with hippies and artists. The atmosphere in those years was magical and the club not only brought  a new way of conceiving fun on the island but invented a real lifestyle that adopted the values of the hippie counterculture making it something trendy. A distinction, however, is not based on the physical aspect or on the money. What matters is the attitude and love for music. Within a few years this farmhouse in the middle of nowhere was transformed by the Urgell brothers, along with their friend and architect Jordi Goula, in the physical and spiritual center of the Pacha brand.

To be Continued…

 

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