From putting on a no-holds-barred open air party high up within the ancient walls of Dalt Vila to creating a floating stage for a live concert on the waves of the Balearic Sea – and even breaking a Guinness World Record – behind the White Island’s most jaw-dropping events is a company with a deceptively simple name: The Shop Productions, a full-service creative marketing and events production agency.
Headed up by Managing Director, Simeon Friend, and a team that grows up to a 100-strong workforce in the busy summer months, defying expectations has become The Shop Productions’ calling card. And doing so while navigating the island’s unique rhythm – and somewhat unpredictable quirks – makes the scale and polish with which Simeon and his crew work even more impressive.
Tucked away in an Ibiza industrial estate, The Shop Productions’ headquarters are a bustling creative hub spread across two levels. In the workshop, a hive of technicians are busy fine-tuning equipment, video walls, lighting fixtures and a vast amount of speakers whilst other crew are loading up the vans. Upstairs, a huge whiteboard adorns the office walls with an eclectic list of upcoming events, where big names like the International Music Summit, the Gumball 3000 rally and Boiler Room events sit next to corporate and private events such as birthdays and weddings.
The sheer thought of the amount of logistics and organisation required to pull it all off is dizzying. Espresso in hand, Simeon laughs, “I love it. If you’re scared of stress it’s definitely not the job for you.” “It’s never boring,” confirms his partner in business and life, Jesse Van Stekelenburg.
Starting out as a DJ himself, Simeon visited Ibiza for the first time in 1989 on holiday with friends. “I didn’t really know what to expect and we found ourselves going to Amnesia. Everyone was super friendly, all with Polo mints and chewing gum, and I just couldn’t quite work out what was going on.” Witnessing the early wave of house music arriving on European shores, he knew that this was something completely different. “From that moment I was hooked – and I’ve been back every year since.”
A seasonal gig DJing on the slopes of Verbier, Switzerland, led to Simeon finding his way into the world of sponsored events that put together extreme sports with brands like Ballantine’s Whisky and Swatch watches, amplifying the electric atmosphere with music. “We did some really cool stuff like The Prodigy playing in the Red Square in Moscow with a halfpipe, Danny Wade jumping the Great Wall of China and a Run DMC concert in Florence,” Simeon recalls.
When he eventually moved to Ibiza, he brought The Shop Productions with him – and 22 years later there have been plenty of highlights and crazy moments. “The International Music Summit conference – of which I am a founding partner – has been going on for 17 years now, and we have produced the entire three-day conference not only in Ibiza, but also in Singapore, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Dubai,” Simeon says. “Then there is the Enchanted Forest – another standout event with very high creative production values.”
Speaking of the impact social media, and, more recently, AI have had on the business, Simeon muses, “The problem with the Instagram moments is that half of it is not real, so you have people sending you every insane idea they have typed into ChatGPT. But it’s cool, because I love the challenge – that’s probably the most exciting part of the job!”
On an island where superlatives rule, what makes The Shop Productions stand out? “We always try to put something where it doesn’t belong. That’s how IMS Dalt Vila started, for example: We just looked around and said ‘Let’s put a stage up there.’ In the most difficult place to get to.”
It’s a vision that has paid off time and time again, and the list of brands that have put their faith into The Shop Productions reads like the who-is-who of the global entertainment, hospitality and fashion industries: From Netflix to Pandora, W Hotels to Heineken, Mindvalley, MTV and many more.
“We are open to everything and we enjoy coming up with crazy ideas – and we love the stories that happen at these events,” says Jesse. “For the Pandora event we were working with Jaden Smith, and we sourced this amazing velvet-covered furniture for his dressing room. After the event, it mysteriously disappeared and we never found it again – our theory is that a fan took it!”
As well as boundless imagination, it’s the team’s ability to navigate the unique pace and ‘red tape’ restrictions of the island that has turned the company into the most trusted on Ibiza. “The rhythm of the island excites me,” says Simeon. “We’ve been working with the town hall for 17 years now, so we know what we can and can’t do. They have a special product to protect and they do a very good job. You have to respect that.”
As the super clubs continue to raise the bar of Ibiza’s party scene, how does The Shop Productions ensure to stay at the forefront of the latest technical developments? “We have some amazing technical experts – many of them are Master technicians from Germany that we fly in for the summer. We live and breathe all the ‘nerdy’ tech stuff,” Simeon explains.
And The Shop Productions’ flair for the spectacular is by no means limited to Ibiza. “We love doing things off the island, it’s refreshing for us,” Simeon says. “I’d actually like to do more of that.” Jesse affirms, “It’s easy for us to fly out to France, Italy and the US – as we have done in past years for our clients who like to take that high level of production support with them.”
One flew the team out to Miami to host a party themed around Arkham Asylum, the fictional psychiatric prison hospital from DC Comics’ Batman series. “The event was on the 52nd floor of a skyscraper in the middle of the city, and everyone was dressed up in amazing costumes,” laughs Jesse. “It was very cool and edgy, we had high-end catering and the Nervo twins were playing – but the craziest thing was a Jetpack that came flying across from another skyscraper.”
Another special occasion that stands out in the team’s memory was a romantic Italian wedding in Puglia, with The Shop Productions taking care of all organisation and production.
