What You Didn’t Know About Barcelona Nightlife

It’s a Monday night at 2 AM and you are all dressed up in your nicest clothes ready to hit the best club in town – Opium. By 6 AM you are stumbling out of the club not remembering anything that happened the past 4 hours. Yes – this is a typical night in Barcelona for aboard students. Barcelona is known as the partying capital of Europe. This makes it a very popular destination for abroad students, as many college students are looking for the next big party. With so many bars and clubs there are endless options of things to do in Barcelona…or are there?

Lets talk a little about the business behind the nightlife in Barcelona. There are basically three promoters that run the show. Kyke with a “y”, Kike with an “I” and “Michael Jordan”. Basically, a bunch of greedy men that try to suck all of the money out of the abroad students. Every night the whole abroad crowd decides to go to one of the clubs that one of these promoters endorses.  These promoters use social media as a way to reach out to the young adults. Each one of them has their own private Facebook group to update students on what the ‘happening’ club of that night is going to be.  The notifications from these groups turn into an annoyance quickly. Realistically aboard students do not need to be reminded of what party is going on that night.. It is the same every week.

Here is a little run down of all the promoters. Lets start with “MJ”. Michael Jordan (who changed his name just so Americans would remember him), has a couple big nights each week. A majority of the abroad crowd goes to CDLC on Tuesday and Opium on Friday. However ladies, be careful he tends to get a little touchy with his clients.

Then we have Kyke with a “Y”. This promoter also has a fake name. He used to work for De Lis Group (owned by Kike with an “I”), but rumor says he decided to break off and steal Kike’s name in order to rob some of his business. Kyke has one good night during the week – Sutton Wednesdays. When the same group of abroad students go and drop thousands of dollars on a table each week. He also used to host ‘Loco Lunes’ at Otto Zuts on Mondays until he was destroyed by the competition of ‘Hello Mondays’ at Opium.

Finally, we get to the only respectable man in the industry. Kike Barcelona Rodriguez. At 22 years old, Kike started the De Lis Group as a promotion group in Barcelona. Since then he has continued to grow his business and now promotes some of the biggest nights in Barcelona. Some include ‘Hello Mondays’ at Opium, ‘Bling’ Wednesdays, ‘Taste Me’ Thursdays at Opium, and Sotavento Saturdays. One major thing that really separates him from the competition is that he seems to be the only stand-up guy. There has never been any story of an abroad student being misled by him and he always makes sure that everything is going as well.  In other words when you go and spend thousands at the club he is promoting, he will make sure you are treated right.This year Kike started the first annual “Abroadfest”. He brought three of the top DJs in the world to Opium on March 7th and marketed towards the whole abroad scene. Barcelona literally became a madhouse that weekend. Everyone from everywhere was there. People from all over Europe and America flew into Barcelona to stay with friends and see this performance. It was a genius idea with a genius title. What person abroad doesn’t want to go to “Abroadfest”???

Keeping the momentum from Abroadfest, Kike decided to put together TRIBIZA Spring 2013. This is a trip exclusively for abroad students, in which they are opening Ibiza especially for this event. Again, with genius marketing he figured out that every person studying abroad in Europe is dying to go to Ibiza. Kike definitely has this promoting thing figured out.

Cutting the promoting drama aside, the Barcelona nightlife is actually a lot of fun. The party goes until sunrise, the people are hot, and the weather is warm. No matter if you are going to Kike, Kyke, or MJ’s events you know you are going to have a great time getting wasted with your friends in a foreign country.

There are over 20 nightclubs in Barcelona itself; however there are only about 6 nightclubs aboard students actually go to.  Opium is the most popular club amongst this group. When asked why, majority of abroad students say opium plays the best music and has the best vibes. Students also love the characters that run around and the violinist that plays on Thursday nights.  Kelly an aboard student who has been to several clubs in NYC explains why she believes Opium blows them out of them park..

So now you have a behind the scenes look of Barcelona nightlife for an abroad student. If you ever have the opportunity to study abroad in Barcelona, take advantage of it.. You will not be disappointed.