Moscow Motion Saturday party
Old Billingsgate Market, London, 22 April 2006
On Saturday 22nd April, London saw one of the most creative parties ever to have been produced in the capital. Top name guests enjoyed the hospitality of the Russian Economic Forum in an Old Billingsgate, completely transformed from its usual austerity to a wonderful fantasy world playing on the duality of expectation.
Designed to cater for the new and dynamic faces of Russian business and a networking opportunity in which to meet both each other and the leading lights of the London business and social scene, this event served as perhaps one of the most memorable events yet on the April calendar of the Russian Economic Forum.
“What struck me most was the broad selection of people at this crazily creative event – a real cross mix of Russians and Londoners…..some dressed up to the nines, others so stylized with fur hats…the works. It was fun to watch everyone else’s mingling!”
Zohra Choudhery
PR, Graff Diamonds
Over 1000 guests at Moscow Motion arrived to an impressively lit Audi Q7 - Audi being a sponsor of the evening. Just as Alice fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, so they then progressed into their very own wonderland, straight from the pages of Lewis Carroll’s greatest work.
“…it was as if I had walked through the back of the wardrobe or gone through the looking glass, every detail and moment was perfect. The atmosphere was magic and is probably one of the most special events I have attended since the demise of the giddy eighties.... it was AMAZING, I was blown away”.
Andrew Downs
5 James English Moscow (Fashion Photographers)
Greeted by an English garden of specially constructed areas, guests placed their coats in a cloakroom reached only by passing through an alley of fresh rose arches. Then walking through the occasional light sprinkling of fountains that leapt from one ornate granite basin to another across their path, the guests emerged into a magical delight, framed by a central sparkling tree with the Hennessy logo artistically scratched into its bark, marking a bar serving the delicious Hennessy cocktails Ginger Twist and Perressy. A wooded area at
the end of the room provided a relaxed and scented seated area where people could while away the time deep in conversation, enjoying a Mini Moet et Chandon rose, until interrupted by an eccentric character or two. The long legged mushroom-holding Alice gazed - in a manner which can only be described as ‘spaced out’ - at guests and offered her hallucinogenic goodies to any brave takers. Suffering a little too much of the “drink me, eat me” syndrome Alice symbolized the results of what a little too much of growing up with life’s excesses could lead to. The Queen of Hearts on the other hand, the “leggiest” woman in the room (difficult when one is discussing a room full of Russians!) was in fact a real “Queen” in the drag sense, posed on stilts to autocratically rule roast over the evening’s guests.
The eccentricity of the design was serenaded to the tune of a traditional English brass band playing everything from “I do like to be beside the sea side” to other staple favorites. Other Alice characters also parodied expectations, playing up the stereotype only to then undermine it; the industrious White Rabbit began numerous conversations with guests only to break off mid sentence to chastise his interlocutor with the fact that they were holding him up for an important business meeting to which “I am late! Late!”, the Mad Hatter entrepreneur with his energy saving ideas had clearly enjoyed a little too much of the substance stronger than tea in his samovar-come-teapot and behaved in an erratic fashion, coined with the utterance “don’t mind me, I’m mad” and the forever smiling Cheshire, attired in a white coat who philosophized the psycho logical status of the guests.
“Moscow Motion was the Party of the year for me! I was very impressed with the cool venue decoration and simply loved the crazy characters! It was really original the way they were modernized, the 'what they have become down the storyline' as it were ... hysterical how they interacted with the guests ... mad the lot of them! ... definitely a night to remember!”
Reghina Fligheli
Tolstoy Ball
Even food was not as straight forward as one might expect. Guests were tempted to nibble upon the set in order to satiate their appetites, giant potato chips and cheese straws as big as industrial ovens would allow, crudites hung from tree branches, giant spheres filled with strawberries, grape pyramids and two giant eggs filled to overflowing with quails eggs and celery salt.
As the room filled with guests, a little bemused at what could possibly come next, a sequence of flashing lights drew focus to a reveal when the stunning dividing backdrop (by renowned artist Alexander Creswell) of an ancestral country garden that had up to this point separated the two sides of the room was brought down to reveal a tunnel through which guests were to embark on a journey to Moscow. Border guards checked Russian Railways’ tickets specially provided by the eponymous Sponsor on their virtual train journey, emerging into a fresh take on Moscow – a cutting-edge state of the art environment, complete with attractive Imperia waitresses offering shots of vodka and later Imperia cocktails (the most favoured of which proved the pink Cosmopolitan), and lasers, projections, screens, caviar and a VIP lounge.
“It was a really fab night...and I was very well behaved considering all the great drinks...”
Louise Hulland
Journalist,
Entertainment News - Unique
The stereotype surprisingly still held in the minds of so many of Dostoevskian backwardness or Zhivago-style desperation were blown away to reveal a Russia dynamic, innovative and a key economic player.
“Moscow Motion …was the party of the year, in fact one of the best parties ever! The mix of people was perfect as was the non stop array of talent on stage including Liberty X. The room was decorated as befitting for Royalty, simply WOW”
Baron Bloom
Director, Citigroup Estates
Guests threw off their English reserve and tripped the light fantastic to both the UK’s and Russia’s hippest live bands and popular djs whilst the English garden party dropped a key, melting into evening, serving now Hennessy XO - arguably the most famous and appreciated XO in the world. The new and upcoming Russian group Tokio kicked off proceedings, then DJ Yastreb, shortly followed by Liberty X. Kristina Orbakaite, one of Russia’s most popular female artists, sang and danced her way through to a guest appearance of Rick Parfitt Junior who truly rocked the party with cover versions of the biggest rock hits and got even the most reluctant to go with the beat.
Next to take the stage were DJ Vengerov and Federoff, who brought their DJ act to life with pyrotechnic and confetti canons and spangly clad babes. Later DJ Zorkin, with top Russian Fashion designer Denis Simachev, combined the latest trend in fashion with those of the club scene in an innovative display of his own club specialties. The evening ended with one of Moscow’s most sought after DJs, DJ Vobla.
“We really had a great time at Moscow Motion. …It was the most remarkable and striking event ever! Everything - from the party registration procedure to the fantastic interior designs was well planned and perfectly organized. We also appreciated your concept of the show program - bringing artists of different music styles and statuses in attempt to meet expectations of the whole audience - young guests and older generation of businessmen.”
Roman Foschenko
Head of Sales & Marketing Department
KATERINA - CITY Hotel, Moscow, Russia
Amongst the many famous faces of the evening were to be found:
- Jamie Fox (Singer)
- Claude Makelele (Chelsea Player)
- Shaun Wright-Phillips (Chelsea Player)
- Tracy Emin (Artist)
- Colin Salmon (Actor)
- Ozwald and Gynel Boateng (Designer)
- Angad Paul (Producer and Entrepreneur)
- Masha Kravstova (MTV VJ and Model)
- Sam Taylor Woods (Artist)
- Francesca Amftheatrov (Artist and Designer)
- Craig Henderson (Actor)
- Kiera Chaplin (Model)
- Aliona Doletskaya (Editor Vogue Russia)
- Nikolai Uskov (Editor GQ Russia)
- Aleksei Smertin (Footballer at Dynamo)
- Olga Slutsker (World Class Gym)
- Igor Chapurin (Designer)
- Rustam Tariko (Russian Standard)
- Oscar Akhmedov (Audi Russia)
- Sergei Kozhevnikov (Russian Media Group)
- Alex Barani (Entrepreneur/Socialite)
- Alex Issa (Designer)
- Aleksei Venediktov (Radio station Echo of Moscow)
- Maksim Kashulinskiy (Forbes Russia)
- Artem Mikhalkov (Actor)
- Alexander McQueen (Designer)
- Clemmie Hambro (Hambro Investment family)
- Henry Channon (Socialite)
- Jay Joplin (Gallery Owner and Art Impressario)
- Luca Del Bono (Businessman and Socialite)
- Angela Dunn (Model)
- Jesse and Tilly Wood (Model)
- Boris Teterev (Rolls Royce, Russia)
- Boris Zimin (Entrepreneur/Philanthropist)
- Natasha and Dmitry Tarasov (Lukoil)
“Fantastic! Hennessy was delighted to take part in such an unforgettable and highly unique party”.
Valerie-Anne Creps
Marketing Manager, Hennessy Russia
The event was sponsored by Audi Russia, Imperia Vodka, Hennessy, Russian Railways, Russian Radio, MTV Russia and GQ Russia.
On behalf of the Russian Standard team, I would like to thank you, and beyond the whole Russian Economic Forum team, for a very professional, fruitful and enjoyable forum. Being a partner of the 3 major events (Moscow Motion, VIP dinner and Russian Rhapsody), as well as of the forum itself, gave us a valuable opportunity to introduce our Brands and to initiate or deepen contacts with an interesting group of English, international and Russian business and glamorous people.
Chris Lucas
Marketing Director, Russian Standard
View the pictures and order a souvenir photo from:
Moscow Motion Party
Russian Rhapsody
From:
www.capitallifephoto.co.uk
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Password: EVENTS
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