Pete Tong’s only confirmed Ibiza booking left in 2026 is Saturday 19 September, guesting at Claptone’s Masquerade at Chinois. He holds no fixed island residency this year. He remains a recurring guest at Blue Marlin Ibiza, where his ‘Pete Tong Sessions’ nights have run for years, and he broadcasts on BBC Radio 1, a role he has held since 1991.
2026 Ibiza dates
No residency this season. Pete Tong is booked as a guest. Line-ups are the full bill for the room, not a support order.
| Date | Where | Line-up |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 19 Sep | Chinois — The Masquerade | Claptone, Pete Tong |
Wonderland’s three seasons at Eden
Tong launched Wonderland at London’s Ministry of Sound on 3 February 2007, with David Guetta and Paul Harris alongside him on the bill. He brought the concept to Ibiza the following year, ending a residency at Pacha to open Wonderland at Eden in Sant Antoni de Portmany for the 2008 season.
The Ibiza edition of Wonderland ran three seasons, 2008 to 2010, Bryan Ferry guested on 25 June 2010, before Tong returned to Pacha for the 2011 season, opening a rebranded Friday night, ‘Pure Pacha… All Gone Pete Tong,’ on 27 May that year. The exact closing date of Wonderland’s final Ibiza season is not confirmed: Wikipedia’s account does not state whether 25 June was mid-season or a finale, and a widely circulated DJ-set recording titled ‘Wonderland Closing Party, Eden Ibiza’ carries the date 1 October 2010, a source this research could not independently verify.
From Essential Selection to Radio 1 Dance
Tong launched the Essential Selection on BBC Radio 1 on 11 January 1991, and from October 1993 also presented the Essential Mix, which began broadcasting live from Ibiza in the summer of 1995. The Essential Selection itself was rebranded simply ‘Pete Tong’ from September 2006, keeping a Friday-night slot that ran 10pm-1am.
Since October 2020 his show has doubled as the drivetime segment of BBC Radio 1 Dance, airing 4pm-6pm Monday to Thursday and pre-recorded from his studio in Los Angeles; tracklist archives on his own site show broadcasts continuing into July 2026. Essential Mix remains a separate, Saturday-night fixture on the station and passed its 30th anniversary in 2023; Carl Cox was named its 2025 Essential Mix of the Year.
Tong was appointed MBE in the New Year Honours announced on 30 December 2013, ‘for services to broadcasting and music.’ In November 2021 he received the Music Industry Trusts Award, presented to him by Idris Elba, recognising more than three decades in dance music and broadcasting.
Ibiza Classics, born at the Proms
The project began as a one-off: Radio 1’s first ever Prom, on 29 July 2015 at the Royal Albert Hall, marking 20 years of the station’s Ibiza broadcasts. Tong curated a set of dance-music ‘anthems’, tracks by Faithless, Daft Punk and Moby among them, arranged by Jules Buckley and performed live by the Heritage Orchestra, with Ella Eyre and John Newman on vocals.
It became a recording and touring act from there: the Ibiza Classics album followed on Polydor/UMC in 2017, with Chilled Classics in 2019, both again with the Heritage Orchestra under Jules Buckley. The stage show still tours as of 2026, seven UK arena dates in December, including two nights at The O2, plus outdoor summer shows such as Lincoln Castle on 12 June and Haydock Park Racecourse on 7 August, though none of the confirmed 2026 dates are in Ibiza itself.
Founding the International Music Summit
Tong co-founded the International Music Summit with Ben Turner, Danny Whittle, Mark Netto and Simeon Friend in 2007, building an annual industry conference timed to the start of the Ibiza season. As of April 2026 he still opens the summit alongside Turner and Whittle.
His other Ibiza-adjacent ventures include the Pete Tong DJ Academy, launched in 2022, and, since 2019, the presidency of ThreeSixZero Recordings. Earlier in his career he built the FFRR dance imprint at London Records, founded in 1986 with Tong running A&R, signing acts including Orbital and Goldie and releasing The House Sound of Chicago compilation that helped bring Chicago house to UK audiences.
Discography
| Year | Release | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | The House Sound of Chicago | FFRR / London Records |
| 2014 | Pete Tong Classics | Warner Music TV |
| 2017 | Ibiza Classics | Polydor/UMC |
| 2019 | Chilled Classics | Polydor/UMC |
What the night is actually like
For 2026 that means no Pete Tong night to build an Ibiza trip around: the one confirmed booking is a guest slot on Claptone’s bill at Chinois on 19 September, not a Tong-branded party. His more regular presence on the island over the past decade has been at Blue Marlin’s day-into-evening sessions rather than a late club residency.
That fits a broadcaster who has built his reputation as much on a three-hour radio show and an orchestral arena tour as on club sets. The Ibiza Classics show plays UK arenas and heritage estates through the second half of 2026, while his actual Ibiza footprint this year is a handful of guest dates rather than a summer-long residency.