IbizaBoy's Village

There's no such thing as a gay club in Ibiza these days, as the four major gay parties - Home of La Troya, Matinée Group, Just Scandal and Gorgeous Ibiza - have all crossed over to be keys players at major clubs, now attracting clubbers of all sexualities.

The biggest of the gay parties is, of course, Brasilio de Oliveira's Home of La Troya. In its second year at Space, its 10-year history takes in both Privilege (as La Vaca Asesina) and Amnesia, where it became the most successful Spanish party in clubbing history during its time as La Troya Asesina.

La Troya's legendary DJ Oliver and the party's equally renowned crew are now permanently ensconced at Space - still causing roadblocks every Wednesday night, only now in Playa den Bossa rather than on the road to San Antonio!

Matinée Group also have a long history (though not in quite as many venues) on the island. They held their first parties at El Divino at the tail-end of the millennium, before embarking on their current sojourn at Space in 2000.

Though the future of daytime clubbing hangs in the balance for next year, the Saturday sessions of Manolo Soria's Matinée Group - with the music provided by headliners J.Louis and Ior-dee - are currently the busiest and best daytime club on the island. The closing party in 2006 finished at an enviable 9pm, the first time any of us had seen day turn into night while at Matinée Group.

Just Scandal has had an equally long journey, having started life at Pacha in 1999, moving to the short-lived Penelope in 2005, and Babylon in 2006. With long-time resident DJ Kae still its most-respected fixture, Just Scandal now look set for a rosy future at El Divino, the perfect venue for the gay scene's sexiest party, which can also lay claim to having the island's sexiest promoters, Marcus and Julio from Soap.

Gorgeous Ibiza, another party that had its roots in the local gay scene, started life with a series of winter parties at Pacha after the 2001 season, leading to residencies at Lucifer, Angel's El Cel, two summers at Amnesia and a ground-breaking season at Penelope. At the time of Penelope's demise, Gorgeous was the most successful of its parties and is now responsible for Saturday-night clubbing at Space.

Gorgeous Ibiza's headlining Italian DJs - Tommy Vee, Mauro Ferrucci and Gianluca de Tiberiis - are joined this year by a plethora of club stars, including Ariel, Oliver Lang and Wayne G, with promoter Paola Cuervo promising to make Gorgeous Ibiza as popular with British club kids as it already is with their continental neighbours.

Anfora, for a long-time the only exclusively gay venue on the island, has been joined this summer by London superclub Heaven, which has taken over the former Penelope (aka Angels) near Pacha, Ibiza town. Promising big things, four of its seven weekly nights will be gay, including Heaven itself on a Tuesday, Federation on Thursday and Salvation on Saturdays.

The backbone of many of these clubs are the island's gay bars. The majority of Ibiza town's gay bars are located in Calle de La Virgen and towards the city walls, and most have strong connections to the club scene, especially Bar JJ (the oldest gay bar on the island, its quarter century of history belying the youthfulness of the club kids who meet there every night of the week), Sunrise, Indira, Co-Fusion, Ethno, La Nada, Cheri, Dome, Angelo and Soap Up. Old favourite Teatro is closed this year, but infamous hostess Simona has moved down the street a bit to Bar Leon

Outside of town, in the beach resort of Figueretes, there's a separate gay scene, based around the long-established bars Kitsch, Monroes and Magnus, now ably supported by C.U.B.E, Island Bar and the latest addition to Ibiza's gay scene, 1yDos.