Elrow returned to Factory Town for its ninth Miami Music Week show last month, bringing with it an army of alien-costumed performers, flying saucers, colorful lights, inflatables, A-list DJs, a giant yellow chicken, and confetti by the truckload.
All of this might seem extraterrestrial to some, but it’s just another day in the wonderfully weird world of “Rowsattacks!,” a themed party from the famously absurd Spanish events brand, elrow.
This year’s 12-hour elrow Miami Music Week closing party brought performances from a host of esteemed house DJs, including collaborative sets like A-Trak B2B Melé, LP Giobbi B2B DJ Tennis, Malóne B2B Ky William and Bastian Bux B2B Tini Gessler, and solo performances from Shermanology, SOSA, Thunderpony, and special guest Mau P.
While arguably a scaled-back version of elrow’s hallmark endeavors—understandable considering the limitations of the venue’s smaller temporary stage—the event still served up the same slice of magic that the brand has been cooking since it launched in 2010.
Then, elrow was a semi-legal Sunday afterparty at Barcelona’s Row 14 nightclub. Now, under the guidance of co-founders and brother-sister duo Juan Arnau Jr. and Cruz Arnau, it’s grown into one of the most successful and instantly recognizable party outfits in the world.
In just the first three months of 2024, elrow has already held seven events in seven different countries. Another 15 are on the way, and dozens more will be announced throughout the summer, comprising standalone gigs in cities like Amsterdam, Dublin and New York City, festival takeovers at ARC Music Festival and Sziget, the brand’s own elrow Town, Snowrow and elrow Island festivals, and its annual residency at Amnesia Ibiza.
Much has already been said about the fact that elrow started as, and remains, a family-owned business. The Arnau family’s legacy dates back to the 19th century, revolutionizing entertainment time and time again in the Catalonian town of Fraga, situated roughly 120 miles west of Barcelona.
Starting with Juan Jr. and Cruz Arnau’s great-great-grandfather, Juan Arnau Cabasés, the Arnau bloodline is responsible for opening one of Fraga’s earliest casinos in 1870, its first major cinema in 1943, and the region’s leading discotheque, Florida 135—previously Florida Fraga—in 1978.
Roughly ten years later, led by Juan Jr. and Cruz Arnau’s father, Juan Arnau Sr., Florida 135 would lead the charge in introducing techno music in Fraga. Eventually, the family would start Spain’s revered Monegros Desert Festival.
But the “elrow family”—the name adopted by the larger company that now oversees elrow, its birthplace Row 14, Florida 135 and Monegros Desert Festival—extends far beyond blood relatives.
Elrow’s music and booking director Victor De La Serna has been a working member of the family for ten years, but his relationship with the Arnau family stretches back even further.
“My first clubbing experience was at their club, and my first festival experience was at their festivals,” he shares during our chat at a popular South Beach sandwich spot. He’s in town for the Music Week festivities, and as a core member of the elrow team, he rarely misses a show.
De La Serna grew up roughly 45 minutes from Fraga, before moving to London in 1999 to study sound engineering and music technology. He’d go on to DJ, produce and work for esteemed clubs like Pacha and Ministry of Sound, building a career as a promoter, A&R man and journalist—eventually opening DJ Mag’s offices in Spain and Australia.
De La Serna first met Juan Sr. during a return trip to Florida 135, shortly after he had moved to London. They made the hometown connection right away, and down the years, the Arnaus vocalized their support from afar.
When De La Serna moved back to Barcelona from Australia, Juan Jr. came calling, and De La Serna has been with elrow ever since.
“I remember back in the days, like 10 years ago, when elrow was a very small brand from Barcelona,” De La Serna recalls. “At that point, we were even traveling with everyone in the van, with decorations and everything.”
These days elrow has swapped small vans for huge moving trucks in what is now a global operation with offices and warehouse spaces in Barcelona, Ibiza, New York, Shanghai and South America.
As is the case for many successful parties, De La Serna says that elrow’s early Ibiza residencies at clubbing institutions like Privilege (circa 2012), Space (circa 2014), and eventually Amnesia, were an important step towards the brand’s global success.
“Ibiza was a showcase,” De La Serna says. “It’s a showroom. All of the promoters go to Ibiza. They want to see the new parties, and it is a bit of word of mouth.”
With wildly psychedelic art installations, stilt walkers, aerial performers, confetti blasts, and a fuzzy chicken mascot named Rowgelia, it would seem impossible for promoters not to take notice.
“We didn’t invent the wheel, but I think we changed it a little bit so that we incorporated elements from different parts of life, from circus to theater,” De La Serna says. “When people come to elrow they just see that it’s something different. It’s not just lineup-led. It’s a whole immersive experience, and I think that’s what separates us from other events.”
It remains common practice for elrow to delay lineup reveals well over a month after a show is announced in a given city, which De La Serna says helps them gauge the brand’s individual selling power in new markets.
“That’s why you will always see that we say, ‘Hey, we’re coming to Miami, or we’re coming to New York, or we’re coming to whatever part of the world—sign up for tickets, this is the ticket price, and then this is the lineup.’”
While some party brands will license their name, likeness, and some operational aspects to other promoters, elrow’s global operations are kept entirely in-house, including designing and building all of the elaborate decorations for their 17 rotating party themes.
“When we do events worldwide, we always work with a local promoter, but all the creative and all the IP and everything stays with us,” he says. The local promoter normally will find the venue, will get the local permits—we work together with the lineup and things like that. But we like to keep creative control of everything we do. And I think that keeps the quality of the brand as it is now.”
Elrow’s current crop of party themes ranges from holiday-centric cultural touchpoints like “Horroween,” “Sambowdromo do Brasil,” and “Chinese Row Year” to time-honored favorites like “Rowlympic Games,” “Rowsattacks!” and “The Enchanted Forest.”
All of the themes are routinely updated, and new ones are dreamed up each year. They even have a project called elrow Art, which calls on independent artists to submit and execute their own party themes.
“We always say in elrow that every crazy idea could be a good idea,” De La Serna says. “People can throw things in the mixer, we come up with names and it’s a very collaborative project.”
“There are obviously people like Juan, the CEO, who is super creative,” De La Serna continues. “He has a creative team below and he gets ideas, and you walk into his office and it’s like a mood board with different crazy ideas and things sitting around. It takes a whole year, at least for us to create anything.”
While the creative process behind elrow is fantastical, few if any, duties on the elrow team offer a bigger adrenaline rush when the confetti flies than that of the DJ.
Each hour, on the dot, during the Miami Music Week show, revelers with an observant eye catch elrow’s production team readying the confetti cannons, which will soon help envelop the venue in a flurry of colorful, dancing paper—perfectly timed with a beat drop.
With each explosion, the crowd reconnects with a childlike sense of wonderment. Even the most stone-faced of clubbers crack a grin, and suddenly, dance music—these days often condemned for taking itself too seriously—is accessible again.
“Nowadays, I feel like most of the more important shows in the industry are not making people smile,” says Bastian Bux, elrow’s resident DJ of eight years. “But what I love from elrow is that everyone’s smiling, and during the confetti moment, everyone’s smiling at the same time.”
“It sounds cheesy, but it’s like this—when you make 5,000 people smile at the same time, you create electricity,” he continues.
Producing and touring under his real name, Joan Reyes, prior to 2015, the Barcelona native has carved out an additionally worldly dance music career since his Bastian Bux rebrand, releasing on respected labels such as Coyu’s Suara, John Digweed’s Bedrock Records, Nicole Moudaber’s MOOD and Sven Väth’s Cocoon Recordings.
However, it’s his work with elrow that he cherishes most.
“I would say it’s been the most important thing that ever happened in my life, not only professionally, but also personally,” Reyes shares, alongside De La Serna, who is also his manager. “It’s the artist life, but also you are part of a big team. It’s a responsibility. You are not 100 percent free—in a good sense. You have to play for your team.”
“You have to adapt to the crowd, to the team, knowing what you would do if it was your solo show,” he continues. “I think that this is a good thing because it shapes you. It makes you humble and makes you realize that you are not the most important person in the show. And for a DJ I think this is something really important to learn fast. Because it makes you a better artist. And it’s more fun when you can share the experience with your teammates.”
It’s this team effort and understanding that has facilitated elrow’s quick rise, and since securing funding from the American investment firm, Providence Equity Partners, in 2017, as well as bringing on brilliant entrepreneur Vicenç Marti as President, the brand has exploded even further.
Though elrow’s annual event count may be down from its pre-pandemic totals—De La Serna estimates then 150 to 160 shows per year—the gigs are growing in size. In 2017, the brand held its first elrow Town festival in London. In 2021, it launched its elrow Island destination festival in Malta, and in 2022, it started its Snowrow ski-resort festival in Andorra. This year, elrow will throw seven festivals.
“I mean, the stress levels are just through the roof now,” De La Serna says. “It gets to a point where we have to grow, and believe it or not—this is what people don’t see from the outside—most of the shows that we did on tour to grow the brand, they were losing money.”
“So the amount of work that goes into a 10,000-capacity show or a 5,000-capacity show [compared] to one of those festivals is tenfold,” he continues. “It’s been an interesting move, and it’s great and exciting. But it’s hard work.”
“In the beginning, we were doing smaller shows, like club shows. Everything was more intimate. But also, it was the beginning—the excitement of ‘Let’s see how far can we go,’” adds Reyes. “And then later, we have these huge shows, with hundreds of people involved. And this new challenge, seeing that we’re taking over all around the world.”
As the brand continues to grow, so too will the elrow family. When booking in new markets, De La Serna says it’s important to work with local partners and have a network of friends around the world.
“I can pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, who’s selling tickets for you in Medellín?’” he says. “Maybe they don’t sell tickets in Spain, so you kind of forget them, and then suddenly, you go to another country and they’re headlining.”
After one short meeting with just these two members of the elrow team, one thing is apparent above all else: no matter how big the brand gets, the elrow family will remain just that—a family.
“It’s shaped me as an artist and human,” Reyes says, reflecting on his time with elrow. “I got to meet the most important people in my life now. It’s been eight years and I grew up as an adult with them. I could not imagine how my life would be without them.”
“You’re going to make me cry,” De La Serna responds with a laugh and a smile.
Featured image courtesy: elrow.