Mario is one of the veterans of the flea market. He arrived 39 years ago, exactly in the summer of ’77. In the beginning, he worked with leather, but for many years now he has been selling silver, with stones and jewelry.
How has the flea market changed since those years?
Before the stalls were just cloths on the ground with very few products, now the bazaar has become bigger, with a lot more people and much more commercial. “Like life itself”, they tell us. When we started we could reach between 150 and 180 during the high season. Currently there are about 550 stalls and hundreds more on the waiting list.
What is the Hippy Market for Mario?
It’s part of their life and history. For 39 years, they have hardly missed a Wednesday at their rendezvous with the little market and the thousands of tourists who come to visit them. So it gladly forms part of their personal history.
What does it mean for Mario to be a hippie?
40 years ago, being a hippie meant breaking with the established order. Today, most are framed within ecological NGOs, and they practice a way of life related to nature, and based on values as important as freedom, tolerance, and respect.
What do you miss from those times?
In those years, Ibiza was much safer, and they coexisted with the locals in total harmony. They had almost everything outside, in the countryside, leaving their houses open… That tranquility and security is what I miss the most.
Also the democratization of the party. Mario explains to us that before Ibiza was much more democratic, and he tells us that in recent years it has been transforming towards a VIP style: “Now many people come who do not share anything with anyone, they only go from VIP to VIP.”
With nostalgia, he tells us how nowadays the luxury topic is more separate, and how before you could be dancing in a place and at the next table you had film director Roman Polanski, German actress Nastassja Kinski, or a Formula 1 driver.
Now they are separated so much that people go crazy and chase them to get their autographs. Before, no one bothered them, they all went to the same places and the same beaches. Ibiza was peace and tranquility and that is what I miss the most.
Any anecdote:
Mario talks to us about the very special and fun parties of the KU disco (now Privilege), to promote them they would approach a group of 4 or 5 people with a mini chain and some speakers on a wheeled cart and they would give out many tickets to people and vendors. They once held a hippie party and invited everyone to eat. “They made some fantastic chickens,” he tells us.