The Wild Weekend That Made Matthias Tanzmann a Circoloco Resident

In the world of DJing, there are a select few coveted international residencies. Near the top of that list would inarguably be Circoloco in Ibiza at DC-10. Its infamous 12-hour day-to-night parties have been essential to the Ibiza experience for over two decades. Matthias Tanzmann was able to cross the legendary nightclub off his bucket list starting over 15 years ago and continues to do so to this day.

“I played in Ibiza only a few times, I played Space, some other things, but not many gigs,” says Tanzmann about his limited Ibiza experience in the early aughts. “In 2006, I released … a track and a remix that had been played a lot by Tania Vulcano at DC-10 at the Circoloco party, so they invited me to come play on New Year’s Day as a kind of a tryout,” he explains. Friends, like Steve Bug, told Tanzmann that Circoloco is an amazing party. And though he had yet to experience the event, his excitement levels were off the charts, even after playing a New Year’s Eve in London the night before.

Adding to the stress of his Circoloco debut on such a massive holiday, the airline lost Tanzmann’s luggage upon arriving in Ibiza. He got stuck at the airport filling out paperwork before being whisked away with minutes to spare.

Luckily, he’d brought his records onboard as a carry-on so he could play his set. “They took me directly to the club, opened the back door, put me into the DJ booth, ‘So you have to start playing now!’” Tanzmann says he didn’t even have time to get nervous. “I went into that famous terrace room and started playing [and thinking], ‘Wow, this is the most amazing thing.’ And luckily, they seem to have liked it, so they asked me to come back, and from the next season from 2007 on, I played there regularly.”

Circoloco and Ibiza remain one of Tanzmann’s favorite places to play. “I would say it will probably always be the place where you have the best crowds because people go there for that reason—they’re on holidays most of them—and they’re super excited to go to the clubs,” he says. “You can feel that on the dancefloor; it’s fantastic.”