Long before Ibiza became famous for superclubs, there was a huge venue sitting between Ibiza Town and San Rafael that was already attracting attention.

It had a swimming pool.

It had enormous outdoor spaces.

It could hold crowds that seemed almost impossible for a nightclub.

And eventually, it became known as Privilege Ibiza.

For decades, the name Privilege was associated with scale.

It was the club people talked about when they wanted to see just how big Ibiza nightlife could become.

But the story of Privilege begins before the name Privilege ever appeared.

To understand the club, you have to go back to Ku.

Before Privilege, there was Ku

The venue opened in 1979 under the name Ku.

That was a very different era for Ibiza.

The island was becoming increasingly international, but its nightlife was still closely connected to the bohemian culture that had developed during the previous decade.

Ku immediately stood out because of its size and unusual design.

It wasn't a small underground club.

It was spectacular.

The venue had an enormous open-air swimming pool surrounded by terraces and spaces for people to gather.

It felt more like a huge outdoor social space than a conventional nightclub.

And that was exactly what made it special.

A club built around the outdoors

One of the defining characteristics of the venue was its relationship with the Ibiza climate.

Instead of putting everyone inside a dark room, Ku made the outdoors part of the experience.

People could move around the different areas.

They could gather around the pool.

They could dance under the stars.

They could enjoy the warm Ibiza nights in a space that felt completely different from traditional European nightclubs.

This was an important part of Ibiza's development.

The island wasn't trying to recreate London, Paris or Berlin.

It was creating something that made sense specifically in Ibiza.

The architecture became part of the attraction

The venue's design helped make Ku famous.

The huge circular pool became one of its most recognisable features.

There were multiple levels and terraces around it.

The scale was unusual.

And the open-air design meant that the club could feel enormous without simply being one giant enclosed room.

This became one of the characteristics that separated Ku from many other clubs.

The building itself was part of the show.

Ku becomes internationally famous

During the 1980s, Ku became increasingly well known outside Ibiza.

It attracted an international crowd and became part of the island's growing reputation as a destination for nightlife.

But Ku was not simply a place for electronic music.

The venue hosted a wide variety of events and entertainment.

Fashion.

Music.

Performance.

Celebrity appearances.

Large parties.

It was becoming a destination in itself.

Freddie Mercury and the Ibiza connection

One of the most famous moments in Ku's history came in 1987.

Freddie Mercury celebrated his 41st birthday in Ibiza with a party at Ku alongside Spanish singer Montserrat Caballé.

The event became part of Ibiza's celebrity mythology.

Mercury was already an international superstar.

And his appearance at Ku demonstrated just how far Ibiza nightlife had travelled.

The island was no longer simply attracting alternative travellers and music enthusiasts.

It was attracting some of the biggest names in international entertainment.

Ibiza enters the celebrity era

The Ku years coincided with an important transformation in Ibiza.

The island was becoming fashionable.

Its nightlife was increasingly international.

And famous people were discovering that Ibiza was somewhere they could escape normal life while still enjoying an extraordinary social scene.

Ku was perfectly suited to that moment.

It was spectacular enough to feel like an event.

But relaxed enough to retain the freedom that had always been part of Ibiza's appeal.

From Ku to Privilege

Eventually, the venue changed hands and identity.

In 1995, Ku became Privilege.

The new name reflected a new era for Ibiza nightlife.

By the 1990s, electronic music had become central to the island's identity.

The club scene was growing rapidly.

International DJs were becoming major stars.

And Ibiza's biggest venues were turning into enormous destinations.

Privilege was perfectly positioned for this new era.

The biggest club in the world?

Privilege became famous for being described as the world's biggest nightclub.

The claim has been repeated for decades and became a central part of the club's identity.

The enormous Main Room was capable of accommodating thousands of people, while the venue as a whole included multiple spaces and terraces.

Whatever exact figure was used at different points in its history, the basic point was obvious:

Privilege was huge.

Standing inside it made most conventional nightclubs feel tiny.

The Main Room

Privilege's Main Room became one of the defining images of large-scale Ibiza clubbing.

The ceiling was enormous.

The dancefloor was enormous.

The production could be enormous.

And when thousands of people were inside at once, the scale could be almost difficult to comprehend.

This was a completely different vision of clubbing from the intimate venues that had helped start Ibiza's nightlife culture.

But both could exist on the same island.

That contrast became part of Ibiza's appeal.

The Vista Club

Another important part of Privilege's architecture was the Vista Club.

The space overlooked the Main Room and provided a very different perspective on the party.

From above, the scale of the crowd became even more obvious.

Thousands of people could appear as one moving mass below.

It was the kind of view that became instantly memorable.

And it helped make Privilege feel more like a huge entertainment complex than a conventional nightclub.

The Terrace and outdoor spaces

Despite its reputation for enormous indoor spaces, Privilege also retained its connection to the outdoors.

Its terraces and open areas allowed people to escape the intensity of the Main Room.

This was another important Ibiza characteristic.

A club could contain multiple atmospheres within the same venue.

Dark and intense inside.

Open and relaxed outside.

Massive dancefloor.

Quieter corner.

The night could change simply by walking a few metres.

Manumission arrives

One of the most important chapters in Privilege's history was Manumission.

The British party brand became closely associated with the venue and helped establish some of the most extravagant nights in Ibiza.

Manumission was famous for its theatrical approach.

It wasn't simply about DJs.

There were performers.

Acrobats.

Dancers.

Fire.

Costumes.

Production.

And a sense that anything could happen.

The party helped push Ibiza nightlife towards a more theatrical and spectacular style.

The club becomes a show

Manumission demonstrated something important about Privilege.

The enormous building could be used for more than a DJ standing behind a booth.

It could become a theatre.

A circus.

A performance space.

A nightclub.

Sometimes all at once.

This helped create a type of Ibiza nightlife that was increasingly difficult to define as simply “clubbing.”

It was entertainment on a massive scale.

The rise of superstar DJs

As the 1990s became the 2000s, Ibiza's DJ culture became increasingly international.

DJs were no longer simply respected within the club scene.

Some were becoming global celebrities.

Privilege hosted major names across different periods and genres, while its enormous capacity made it particularly suited to large-scale events.

The club could handle crowds that smaller venues simply couldn't.

That was its strength.

Privilege versus the intimate Ibiza

This is one of the fascinating contradictions of Ibiza.

The island's clubbing culture began in relatively small, alternative spaces.

But it eventually produced some of the largest clubs in the world.

Privilege represented the extreme end of that transformation.

It was enormous.

Spectacular.

Commercially ambitious.

And designed for huge crowds.

Yet just a short distance away, smaller venues were continuing to operate with completely different philosophies.

That contrast is part of what makes Ibiza nightlife so unusual.

The superclub era

During the 1990s and 2000s, the idea of the Ibiza superclub became a global phenomenon.

People didn't simply travel to the island for nightlife.

They travelled specifically to experience enormous venues.

Privilege became one of the names that represented this era.

The club's size became part of the attraction.

Visitors wanted to stand inside the enormous room.

They wanted to see the scale.

They wanted to tell people back home:

“I went to the biggest club in Ibiza.”

For many, that was an experience in itself.

But size wasn't everything

Despite its reputation for scale, Privilege's importance wasn't simply about capacity.

The venue became a symbol of how far Ibiza nightlife had developed.

A club that had begun as Ku in 1979 had survived multiple changes in music and culture.

It had moved through the disco and post-disco era.

The rise of house.

The explosion of electronic music.

The superstar-DJ era.

The theatrical club era.

And the increasingly commercial Ibiza of the 21st century.

That longevity is significant.

The challenge of changing times

The clubbing world changed dramatically during the 2010s.

Ibiza became more expensive.

Competition between clubs became intense.

Visitors had more choices.

Large productions became increasingly sophisticated.

And the meaning of an Ibiza night continued to evolve.

Privilege faced the same challenges as many long-established venues.

How do you remain relevant without losing the identity that made you famous?

Privilege closes

Privilege eventually stopped operating as a nightclub.

The club's final years were complicated, involving legal and licensing issues as well as wider changes in Ibiza's nightlife landscape.

The venue's closure marked the end of one of the island's most important superclub eras.

For people who had experienced Privilege at its height, it was another reminder that Ibiza nightlife is constantly changing.

No club is guaranteed to last forever.

The building remains part of Ibiza's history

Even after its nightclub era ended, the venue remained an unmistakable part of the island's landscape.

People who had spent years dancing inside it could still point to the building and remember what it represented.

A different era.

Different parties.

Different DJs.

Different crowds.

And nights that felt almost impossibly large.

Why Privilege mattered

It is easy to look at Privilege simply as “the huge club.”

But that undersells its historical importance.

Privilege showed how far the Ibiza club model could be taken.

It demonstrated that a nightclub could become a destination attraction in its own right.

It could combine music, architecture, performance and spectacle.

It could accommodate thousands of people.

And it could become internationally famous without needing to follow the traditional nightclub format.

Ku's legacy lives inside Privilege

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the story is that the two identities are connected.

Ku and Privilege belonged to different eras.

But the building's basic character remained.

Open spaces.

Large crowds.

The pool.

The terraces.

The feeling of being somewhere bigger than an ordinary club.

The venue evolved because Ibiza evolved.

From the 1970s to the modern era

Think about what happened during the venue's lifetime.

When Ku opened in 1979, electronic dance music was still developing.

By the time Privilege became internationally famous, DJs were playing to thousands of people.

House music had transformed nightlife.

Techno had become global.

Ibiza had become one of the world's most important clubbing destinations.

And a venue that started as an unusual open-air club had become a symbol of the superclub era.

That is an extraordinary transformation.

The nights people still remember

Ask former Ibiza clubbers about Privilege and you'll hear stories about the scale.

The first time walking into the Main Room.

Looking down from the Vista Club.

Standing beside the enormous pool.

Watching Manumission performances.

Seeing thousands of people react to the same track.

Those memories are difficult to replace.

Because they were created by a combination of architecture, music and people that existed at one particular moment in Ibiza's history.

Privilege's place in clubbing history

Ibiza has had many legendary clubs.

Some became famous because of their music.

Some because of particular DJs.

Some because of their underground credibility.

Privilege became famous because it showed just how enormous clubbing could become.

It represented the superclub.

The idea that a nightclub could be a huge architectural spectacle capable of hosting thousands of people.

And for decades, that made Privilege one of the most recognisable names in Ibiza nightlife.

The end of an era

The closure of Privilege doesn't erase its history.

If anything, it makes that history more interesting.

Because Ibiza is constantly rewriting itself.

Clubs open.

Clubs close.

New generations arrive.

New sounds take over.

Old legends become memories.

And sometimes, the most important part of a club is what happened there when it was alive.

Privilege had decades of those moments.

What Privilege left behind

It left behind photographs.

Stories.

Music.

Memories.

And a reminder of how dramatically Ibiza nightlife has evolved.

From a rural island with a growing alternative culture to the world's most famous clubbing destination, Ibiza has repeatedly reinvented itself.

Ku was part of that transformation.

Privilege was part of it too.

And although the club is no longer welcoming the crowds it once did, its place in Ibiza history is secure.

The giant that defined an era

There is something fitting about the fact that one of Ibiza's most famous clubs was also one of its biggest.

Because Privilege represented an entire era.

The era when Ibiza superclubs became destinations.

When DJs became international stars.

When nightlife became spectacle.

When thousands of people could gather under one roof and feel as though they were part of something enormous.

The building may now be quiet compared with those legendary nights.

But for decades, it was anything but quiet.

It was Ku.

It was Privilege.

And it was one of the biggest stories Ibiza ever told.