Van Wyck & Van Wyck founders and siblings Bronson van Wyck and Mimi van Wyck marked the height of Ibiza’s 2026 summer season with a Pharaoh’s Ball, celebrating three occasions at once: the total solar eclipse of August 12, Mimi’s birthday, and the anniversary of Cleopatra’s legendary final act, when she outmaneuvered Augustus in death rather than surrender, choosing the bite of an asp over Roman conquest. For one night only, the van Wycks transformed Sa Pedrera, a former stone quarry in Sant Antoni, Ibiza, into an intergalactic Ægyptian discothèque — a lost ancient world reimagined for the dance floor.
More than 400 family, friends, and guests arrived from across the globe for a celebration nearly a year in the making. Among them were Charlotte Tilbury, André Balazs, Adrien Brody, Georgina Chapman, Frédéric Arnault, Anthony Vaccarello, Eric Schmidt, James Blunt, Olivia Palermo and Johannes Huebl, Gela and John Taylor, Elizabeth and Guy Pelly, Ana de la Reguera, Riccardo Tisci, Darren Star, Giovanna Engelbert, Indre Rockefeller, Caroline Daur, Celerie Kemble, Thom Filicia, Steven Gambrel, Robert Stilin, Sofia Hesketh, Tamara Beckwith, Daniela Agnelli, Inga Rubenstein, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, the Countess of Durham and the Earl of Durham, Stephanie Ruhle, Vlad Doronin and Kris Roma, Liza Yermalovich, B and Jonas Åkerlund, Gunna, Ebonie Ward, Fe, Paola and Alessia Fendi, Gstaad Guy, Annie Doble, Stefano Tomadini and Francesco Farina, among others.
Teased for weeks through an anonymous Instagram account, a cascade of pyramid imagery, and a richly illustrated invitation layered with reproductions of Hilda Klimt’s colorful abstract pyramid paintings delivered by hand to guests, the party built its own mythology before a single guest set foot in the quarry.
For van Wyck, the scale of the evening was in service of something simpler: hospitality. Celebrations of this size happen only once every five or ten years, marking milestones that matter enough to warrant them. Van Wyck has long viewed entertaining as a form of gratitude, a way of repaying the generosity, friendship and hospitality he and his family have received throughout their lives. Each of these rare gatherings begins from the same instinct: bring together the people you love, care for them completely, and give them something extraordinary in return. That philosophy of graciousness has guided Van Wyck & Van Wyck from the start. When people are in your care, every detail should make them feel considered.
“Long before hospitality became an industry, it was a way of life and a way to exchange friendship, love, and respect. The ancient Greeks called it Xenia, the sacred duty of welcoming and caring for others,” said Bronson van Wyck. “We were raised in the same belief. For my family and me, giving a party is an expression of love and gratitude for the people in our lives. Every five or ten years, we gather the people we love and try to give something back — not simply food and wine as it once began, but an experience that expresses how grateful we are to have them in our lives.”
The scale that follows — the pyramid, the performers, the five hundred guests — is a byproduct of that intention rather than its purpose. The party is what results when hospitality is taken to its fullest expression. It is not the starting point.
“We use our own parties to push the envelope creatively,” said van Wyck. “They become a kind of laboratory for us: a place to exper…