I went on hols to Ibiza 25 years ago & never went home – my first job was crazy & I’ll never forget the 90s party heyday

A BRIT has shared how he jetted off to Ibiza for a two-week holiday in 1999- and still hasn’t returned home.

Andy Maunders, 42, left Norwich for a holiday on the Spanish party island and he enjoyed it so much that he decided to extend his stay – by nearly 25 years.

And he’s also revealed how much the infamous party island has changed over the quarter century, now much more sedate than the boozy heyday of the late 90s and early 00s.

The young Brit was 18 years old when he fell in love with Ibiza and never looked back – leaving his job, his girlfriend and his family back home in Norfolk.

He told The Sun Online: “I came out on a two weeks holiday and stayed. I just stayed for the rest of the summer and never returned.

“I came here at 18, I had a job, girlfriend everything but I left it back.

“It was always ill stay another week. To this day I’ve never said ‘I now live in Ibiza,’ I never sat down and said ‘let’s think about this’.

“It was always just another week and then another couple of weeks.”

Andy was working on the island when Ibiza was at its peak, with legendary parties and all-night clubbing becoming his routine.

Some of the world’s best DJs were blasting electronic music at Ibiza’s iconic clubs such as Amnesia, Pacha and Privilege.

Party animals across the globe would jet off to Ibiza for boozy sprees, nights filled with drugs and sex.

The party was non-stop in San Antonio, home to some of the world’s best nightclubs.

Andy who was there through Ibiza’s peak, recalls his first job as an 18-year-old newcomer on the island.

Andy who now works as a manager in the Flaherty’s pub in San Antonio, remembers working “all sorts of stupid jobs” in bars, pubs and restaurants over the years.

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He added: “My favourite was in my first year, my job was to give free alcohol.

“As an 18-year-old in Ibiza it was great I was the most popular person in the building.

“One of these places where everything was prepaid food and drink.

“My job was to go around and give the alcohol- beer and sangria.

“And they’d call me ‘the free alcohol guy’- even though they had paid for it.

“And then going out after work, I used to bump into some of the people who’d say ‘ we need to buy him a drink, he gave us free alcohol.'”

24 years on Andy still loves the island’s vibe and has never crossed his mind to go back to the UK.

However, he admits the party scene on the island has changed dramatically in the past years- with Ibiza gradually losing its boozy character and turning into a more “VIP holiday destination.”

He told The Sun Online: “You get a lot less of that crowd coming here now, the drink drink drink crowd.

“When I first came to Ibiza that was a big thing the cheap booze crowd, coming to the bar, the first thing they’d do was ask for the cheapest pint possible and throw it down the neck.

“Not so much now, you get different kinds of people coming in and asking what wine list you got.

“That boozy market is dropping and the VIP has increased.

“You don’t want to lose the fun drinky puby thing but it’s a different attitude towards it.

“20 years ago the kind of people who would come would be the ones who’d wear a football shirt on a date, come to the pub, have the cheapest drink possible, drink as much as possible and get sick on their shoes.

“You can still get the fun type of crowds but they are a bit more respectful.

“Even youngsters will go to a nice restaurant now.

“The party area is the West end and it’s just two streets, Ibiza is not like that- it has some of the best beaches in the world.”

Clodagh Enright, 49, the pub’s owner agreed.

“The way people party has changed, it has definitely become very daytime compared to before and very VIP,” she said.