After spending the afternoon rushing from mobilee's Hotel Silken Diagonal to Sonar's Fira Montjuïc and back in a frantic dash to collect press passes before their respective cutoff times, I finally made my way up to the rooftop party I’d heard so much about over the years.
Mobilee’s Barcelona rooftop parties have always carried a large amount of lore in my imagination. An intimate gathering, the party is limited to only 237 people due to legal restrictions. This alone piques any avid partygoer’s interest, but add a rooftop pool party element, mobilee artists like Re.You, And.Id and Anja Schneider, and stories passed down from respectable rooftop veterans over the years using words like ‘legendary’ and ‘can’t miss,’ and the party becomes something of fable.
So did the reality meet the expectations?
A coloruful, glass rooftop, plush white chairs, wooden floors and walls, and the open air exterior combine with one of the world’s most beautiful cities at your feet for a truly exceptional sight – one that should be taken in before making it too far to the dance floor. As the high-energy sounds of Chris Drifter’s remix of Darko De Jan’s “Desert Safari” pumping from the crisp system proved, once I was sucked deep onto the dance floor, there I remained without hardly a bathroom break until party’s end.
Ajna then went straight down to &Me’s deep and melodic “After Dark” with ease, a sign of things to come, displaying astounding versatility all night. Moving from deep and punchy to tribal flavors, edgy tech, to grooved out piano territory, the mobilee boss created something that seems to happen far too rarely on the dance floor these days – a real moment.
As the sun started to set, and an ominous blood moon rose above the horizon behind the booth, things got light and melodic – a beautiful turn of events – with tunes like 2011’s “Cloudy” by Scarola and dubspeeka’s “Pretty Liar,” before winding down with the likes of “Dancing Feels Like” ('s Innocent Mix) by Pirahnahead and Rodriguez Jr.’s forthcoming ‘Persistence Of Vision’ – an extra special moment, as mobilee’s newest star joined Anja in the booth for a round of well earned cheers and hugs.
We talk often about setting in our Ibiza reviews, and for good reason. With such oversaturation in today’s dance music market, setting can be the difference between a standard night out and a perfect night out. And impossibly living up to every one of my expectations, the mobilee Rooftop Barcelona was as good as it gets.