Adrián Rodríguez, the man who wants to change the rhythm of Ibiza

Since 2013, Adrián Rodríguez (Ibiza, 35 years old) has kept a vinyl signed by Rubén Pozo: “For the true king of music in Ibiza. Thank you for taking me to the island for the first time.” The former member of Pereza is not the only musician who finally managed to perform in Ibiza courtesy of Adrián. Iván Ferreiro, Depedro, Leiva, Orishas or Bomba Estéreo had not flown with instruments to the island until then. The idea of ​​starting a cultural movement beyond an electronic universe had been ripening in his head for a long time, but the project started when the father of an ex-girlfriend transferred him a Mexican restaurant with a café concert license in the municipality of Sant Antoni. He contacted Zahara's manager and she was the first artist to perform in 2012. She had previously written to Love of Lesbian and Mojinos Escozíos to use a couple of songs in a short film. amateur that he had recorded with his friends and the answer had been yes. She decided not to change the method. “I've always worked like that. If she had something on her mind, she would think of the person who could get it and reach out. I never felt inferior, I guess that naturalness is what has opened doors for me,” she says. The topic With the desire to, by Zahara, played live for the first time in Ibiza. As a premonition and despite everything, they never left him.

Despite everything because Ibiza is a place as magnetic as it is hostile and without much cultural narrative. “I find it curious when people nostalgically refer to Eric Clapton or Bob Marley's concerts in the seventies, because the people who were there remember that there were very few of them. My mother, for example,” she notes. Flamenco also works as an analogy. Despite the strong Andalusian immigration that occurred in Ibiza between the sixties and eighties, none of the most representative figures of flamenco had flown to the island, until Adrián brought together Niña Pastori, José Mercé, Miguel Poveda, Tomatito or Estrella Morente at the Brisa Flamenca Festival, which has been held since 2018. Although her most ambitious project is Sueños de Libertad (SDL). A decade ago he imagined a festival that would force bands from the Peninsula to set their sights on the island. A decade later, a little more tired and much less naive, he is still convinced that there is capacity in Ibiza for an audience beyond Amnesia. Even Pepe Roselló, founder of Space, a temple of electronics since 1982, joined SDL in 2021 to support the initiative at a delicate time for live music due to the effects of the pandemic. This year, the festival will be held on the Vara de Rey promenade in Ibiza from May 23 to 25 and will be free. Nothing more can be done.

In addition to rock or flamenco, electronic music (he worked for six years in Space) also flies over one head, Adrián's, which flows faster than bureaucracy. And while he hires musicians, looks for sponsors, issues invoices and books hotels, he works on a still secret project to return electronics to the forest, the place where raves emerged when everything was wilder and purer. He feels nostalgic for an Ibiza that he did not know and has been told about, but he detects a new generation of tenants made up of artists, designers and creatives from Europe settled on the island as a result of the pandemic and with the ability to shake off the boredom in winter and blur the clichés. “Do you know where it shows? At the town festivals. Suddenly you see people with a different vibe. All this may interest them.” Sometimes, rarely, he wants to run away. “It is impossible. “My head and my life are in Ibiza.”

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