The closing weekend of Neo Kaos Garden at Ibiza’s colossal new venue, [UNVRS], was less a party and more a vibrant, collective odyssey into a world where art, music, and technology violently and joyously collided. The event, a partnership between the legendary party organisers elrow and the visionary artist Okuda San Miguel, was described by Okuda as a “digital circus,” a 2.0 version of his psychedelic universe brought to life with geometric creatures, moving stages, and a 360-degree immersive spectacle.
The Auditory Experience: The DJ’s Perspective
Wade, who played the closing set, described the immense scale of the new Ibiza experience, noting the dramatic increase in venue size. “I played last Saturday in UNVRS, my first time, and it was like 8,000 people,” he remarked. He compared the feeling to a “club festival,” where the energy of a massive outdoor event is contained indoors.
When asked how he matched his sound to Okuda’s highly visual, psychedelic setting, Wade explained his approach to the closing set:
“I try to adapt my music with the theme of the party… elrow this weekend with Okuda it was psychedelic, like so many colours. I played my style for the crowd with much more classics for the last 30 minutes, all the classics that everyone knows.”
The set was a dynamic, genre-fluid journey, which included disco elements to the unexpected, and much-appreciated, UKG. Wade confirmed this, reflecting on the freedom the environment allowed for both festival-style and club-focused tracks. He summed up the entire closing weekend experience with two words: “Happiness!” and in Spanish, “Locura!” (Madness!).
Wade also reflected on his decade-long relationship with the elrow family, noting their incredible growth from an after-party brand in Barcelona to a global presence. He also shared news about upcoming tracks: a collaboration with a newcomer producer from Miami is set to be released on his label, Criterio Music, on October 10th. Additionally, another powerful, pumping track with an L.A.-based bass house producer is expected in the next three months. Wade further teased future plans for his label, Criterio, hoping to bring its “energy music” to Ibiza again next year.
The Visual and Conceptual Experience: The Artist’s Vision
Okuda San Miguel, the renowned artist behind the immersive set design and visuals of Neo Kaos Garden, viewed the event as a monumental step in his artistic evolution, a blend of a museum, a theatre, a circus, and a modern, digital experience.
“I usually do artworks for people to feel something different… But here it’s like a very contemporary experience because it’s like a mix between when you go to a museum… when you go to the theatre, when you go to the circus, and when you go to a more modern, crazy digital experience, everything at the same time.”
Okuda noted that this 2.0 version was a significant upgrade from the original Kaos Garden, leveraging [UNVRS]’s technological capabilities. The key difference? Movement and screens. “It’s like a live canvas,” he explained, where structures move and everything is dynamic.
He expressed his gratitude for the project coming at a moment when he was already “breaking all [his] art” and bringing it to new textures and levels, incorporating AI into his creative process. Okuda’s next ambitious goals include opening his own museum and launching a video game whose hero is a young girl in a wheelchair, with the goal of “tak[ing] out the limits.” He further noted that his work extends into philanthropy through his Colouring the World Foundation, which he started five years ago to promote diversity and optimism through art.
When offering advice to starting artists, Okuda emphasised the importance of intention:
“They need to ask themselves if they do art because they need to be happy, like me, or they need to do art for the rest of the people, to feel something… If they want to be an artist because of the followers or because of the money, it’s not the way.”
The elrow Philosophy: The Creator’s DNA
Juan, one of the brothers and creators of elrow, provided the DNA of the globally successful brand, which stems from a family history of throwing parties for over 150 years. Born in 2010 as a Barcelona after-party, elrow’s success came from shifting focus away from simply booking international DJs and instead concentrating on the customer experience.
Juan explained that the elrow model is carefully balanced, divided into four equal parts. Twenty-five percent is dedicated to the music, which must be “uplifting and fun,” since their goal is to entertain people, not simply deliver culture. Another twenty-five percent is decoration, focused on creating an immersive 360-degree stenography throughout the venue, not just the stage. The third pillar is Interaction, brought to life through actors, inflatables, steel walkers, and games designed to engage the crowd. Finally, the last and “most important thing” is the crowd itself, accounting for the final twenty-five percent, as “this is when magic happens.” For Juan, the audience’s willingness to be participative, engaging with the theme and smiling, is what completes the show.
The collaboration with Okuda began serendipitously after they met at an event, leading Juan to realise the power of bringing art into the electronic music world. This paved the way for future collaborations with artists like Ron English and Alex and Allyson Grey.
Looking ahead, Juan sees elrow’s evolution moving beyond contemporary artists to include collaborations with “massive ideas” from the worlds of video gaming, movies, and theatre, even working with directors. His advice for fully experiencing the show was simple: “Try to be in the middle [of the dance floor] because this is what we do,” stressing that the show is created for the audience who is actively dancing.
The Neo Kaos Garden Experience: A Final Summation
The closing weekend of Neo Kaos Garden 2.0 was a testament to the power of collective, high-concept entertainment. It successfully merged Okuda’s vision—a frenetic, hyper-colourful digital world that defies reality—with elrow’s core mission: creating an interactive, fully immersive, and joy-filled experience.
From Wade’s celebratory mix of old and new sounds, designed to match the visual chaos, to Okuda’s cutting-edge use of technology and geometric art, the event lived up to its promise of being “more than just an audiovisual show.” It was, as Juan emphasised, a triumph of the participative crowd, where the audience’s willingness to engage with the madness completed the 360-degree world, leaving guests with a feeling of overwhelming “happiness” and “locura”.
A special thank you to fffea and the incredible elrow team for the invite, Okuda for the insane visuals, Wade for the epic tunes, and the warm and welcoming experience for my first trip to Ibiza!
