party for the animals

More and more companies are judged by their social and environmental commitment as well.

In February a special event took place, the ‘Party for the animals’ organized by Suzan Cetinkaya and supported by Club Mate Ibiza, Lamuella who offered their beautiful space and lots more people through their collaboration.

This event is dedicated to three animal shelters in Ibiza, Duo, Care4Cats and Moji, all three organizations that urgently need any support they can get from the citizens of Ibiza. We spoke to Suzan after the event to find out about the details and show our support and solidarity.

First of all thank you and all involved for this great event, Ibiza needs more of that. How did the idea come to life?

Club-Mate is a Berlin kid so to say, so when I launched it here last year, we hosted a Berlin-Techno party in order to make an ‘authentic’ connection to the environment where it comes from. You have to know that Club-Mate has a very special connection to the underground scene there. As the launch party was a huge success we decided to repeat it once in a while.

Back then, I promised to give a certain percentage of the income to charity. So this time I decided to connect these two things: A 12-hour charity party for Techno lovers where they can enjoy life to the fullest, and so even more knowing that they contribute to a good cause at the same time. There are millions of Techno kids out there that care a lot about animals, right?

And Ibiza is perfect for this kind of parties – it’s a music island. And music connects. The great thing is that even those that have not much but would like to help and maybe think it’s ridiculous to donate a few Euros have an opportunity to contribute to a good cause. Actually, everyone can help if they are given an opportunity.

Carrying on this idea, imagine if only 1% of club entries or profits here in Ibiza would be put back for charity! What a difference it would make, right? Not to mention the signalling effect! I’m sure the people would enjoy the parties even more, they would love it. Well it’s my vision of how business and charity can go hand in hand here in Ibiza….

I guess you are an animal lover yourself?

Yes indeed. I’ve always had pets and have been supporting many organizations worldwide for many, many years. I’m consequent in this. I’ve been strictly vegetarian for more than 20 years, and when I started gaining more knowledge and insight about the meat and food industry, I’ve become vegan 3 years ago.

How did you get the brand ‘Club-Mate’ involved?

Let me tell a bit about Club-Mate’s background. It is being produced by a family-owned brewery in a small village in Germany. And they never cared about promoting their product. It convinces by its amazing taste and its quality. The ingredients are great, but also the 100% eco-friendly production makes it so special and popular amongst its fans. People love the fact that even the gum of the bottle labels is produced without animal products. The story behind Club-Mate is so amazing, no wonder it has become cult in Berlin. Everyone is drinking it there. This all-natural energy drink based on yerba mate has initially been discovered by hackers (Chaos Computer Club Berlin I believe). They wanted to remain clear and effective during their extra shifts of programming and computer works. Then it’s been offered by a bar in Berlin and so it went, by word of mouth so to say. And now, Berlin’s nightlife wouldn’t be the same without it. That’s how this wonderful success story began actually. So of course they are more than happy if I, as the exclusive distributor of Club-Mate for Ibiza, decide to contribute a little bit to a ‘better world’ with a Club-Mate party. By the way, I wouldn’t sell the product here either if I wasn’t a big fan of it. I was really missing it and contacted them to see if I could bring my favourite drink here to the island – so, here we are: Club-Mate Ibiza!

Last but not least let me tell you that this new kind of business mentality is already a movement that can be seen throughout the world, especially Europe. More and more companies are judged by their social and environmental engagements as well, not only their products or numbers. Especially nowadays this is more important than ever. Seeing more and more poor people struggling to make a living and the news about the multi-billion profits of cooperations at the same time seems grotesque. I’m not the only one who thinks that something fundamental is going wrong with this world – many people feel things should change. And luckily more and more companies take more responsibilities and decide to strive for other goals that are more satisfying and worthwhile than increasing the profits every year. Especially the start-ups have beautiful ideas how business and saving the planet can go hand in hand. And more and more consumers are supporting these companies.

Why did you choose La Muella for the event?

First of all, it’s a lovely bunch of people, plus super professional. And the club is beautiful and perfect in size if you want to have an ‘intimate’ little party for 200 to 400 people. And, although risking to be denounced, they allowed us to do a 12-hour marathon party which is difficult here on the island as you know. They took the risk because they all love animals too and wanted to help.

How was the party?

It was a fantastic debut! Considering the fact that there are not many people on the island at this time of the year and that Lamuella is a bit remote we still had a constant flow of people coming and going! Million thanks to everyone again! The great music by our fabulous line-up and the fantastic underground atmosphere made sure that it was busy until the end: 12noon next day. When we switched off the music there were probably still around 100 people I think.

Just so people know, there is a lot of planning involved to get to the party, then you must control the event, and finally you have to hold as much money as possible from the event and get it to the institutions mentioned, in your case the lucky ones are Care4cats, Moji and Duo. Tell us more about it.

True, it’s a hell of a work, but it was so worth it. Weeks of preparation, coordination, promotion etc… especially considering that the line-up consisted of six DJs. To save money I organized everything by myself. Of course, I was kind of destroyed when the party was over, but so happy at the same time. Although some of the involved DJs and helpers didn’t charge anything or only little, we still had quite a bill in the end. Setting up a proper party is expensive. So I was relieved that we had such a positive balance in the end. Mojis, Care4Cats and DUO are the first recipients as they really do so much for the island animals. Everybody knows that. They are Samaritans in urgent need of any help they can get.

By the way, MOJIS has to move end of the summer. So, if you, dear reader, happen to be an animal lover and a landlord who could afford to rent out a small piece of your land (1000 to 2000 square meters would be completely sufficient), please get in touch with me here or Abraham directly here.

How much money was collected and how is it going to be used?

Deducting all external costs, the profit was 645 Euros. Club-Mate sales are included. I doubled it so in the end we had almost 1300 Euros that went directly to the aforementioned shelters. Together with my friends from Bratvolk we made this little film, so that they all had the opportunity to explain what will happen with the money. It’ s important to have transparency with such donation parties I think. Everyone knows an example of a charity party after which nobody had a clue where exactly the money went and what it was used for right? So, that’s why we’re publishing it all. And also to give people an idea what really happens with the donations.

We see in the movie how much effort it needs to get all this done – will there be a follow-up?

For sure, Club-Mate Ibiza will continue supporting charities in the future. Although it is still a start-up, I will do whatever I’m able to. As to the parties, it’s not sure yet, when exactly, but there will be another one for sure, under its usual ‘Berlin Techno’ name however.

Thank you so much for doing what you do Suzan, and count on us whenever you think of doing it again.

Aaw thank you sooo much! And again, thanks for playing for free and supporting us, Andreas. Very, very much appreciated.

The pleasure was mine Suzan, any time anywhere again, you can count on my personal and our support as a team.

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more info:

MOJIS // DUO // CARE4CATS // Lamuella // Club Mate Ibiza