The stickers in Ibiza

A CAR WITHOUT A STICKER IN IBIZA IS A CAR THAT HAS RECENTLY ARRIVED ON THE ISLAND

There is an unmistakable sign when you want to know whether a car is a ‘novice’ on the island, in other words, that it has just arrived. You only have to go round to the boot, look at the rear window and, if you see a clean car without a single sticker promoting a discotheque or a party at a discotheque, then that car is new in Ibiza.

During the summer months, local cars become another advertising space for discotheques, parties and DJs that use them to promote themselves. Let’s be clear: this does not occur with other advertising spaces which are paid for. In this case, the owner of the car does not receive any kind of payment for it, but rather, what they receive is the ‘status’ that your car has now become just one more on the roads of the island and that, with this kind of typical marketing in Ibiza, you become a little more local.

While you are on the island, it seems almost normal to you and you get used to it, but when your car leaves it, you realize that that is not the way it is and you get comments like these:

“Don't you have a fridge to put stickers on?” Or, “You have not stopped partying all summer!” Or, “Can you still see anything?” The answer is always the same: neither one nor the other: It is not you yourself that puts the stickers on your car (as per normal) and nor do you have to go out partying to end up with party stickers on the rear window.

It goes without saying that a car full of party stickers implies that the driver/ owner likes electronic music because there is a greater probability that they put one on your car when you are within close range of the island’s clubs than when you are far away from them. In Ibiza, you do not have to go to the car park of any of the discos in order for someone to slap a sticker on your car; all it takes is to park it in any street such as Avenida 8 de Agosto or Isidoro Macabich and for one of the party or disco promoters to pass by and stick a new one on. It does not matter if your vehicle is new or old, and it does not matter if there are no stickers on it or whether you cannot fit another one on:  you are sure to get one.

As with everything in life, when it comes to the stickers on cars, there are also exceptions and, in this case, exceptions that go from one extreme to the other. On one hand, we find those who come to the island for a few days and buy stickers or ask their friends who live here for them to put all of them on their car so that they feel like a local. Like this, they are able to make people envious of the fact that they have been to Ibiza, or to be seen as the greatest partygoer when they leave. On the other hand, we find those who protest about it; in fact, a social media group was created under the banner “I am Ibizan - don’t put stickers on my car” with the aim of stopping or regulating this kind of advertising on cars.

In any case, for many people, stickers on cars are part of the island’s particular character: it is something that makes it unique in this and many other aspects.