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‘They took over the whole of Palermo’: How the 0.1 per cent like to party
Gone are the days when it’s enough to rent a mega villa or charter a jet, as shown by the Japanese magnate who commandeered an Italian city
The world may be going to hell in a handcart, but billionaires will still be billionaires.
Take Kaoru Nakajima, the eccentric Japanese industrialist who celebrated his 70th birthday (delayed three years by Covid) with 1,400 of his closest friends last month in Palermo, where he is said to have taken over the highly luxurious and recently opened Rocco Forte hotel, Villa Igiea, and block-booked rooms in another five-star establishment, as well as hiring several of the city’s most important monuments for the bash. Teatro Massimo, Italy’s largest opera house, for example, played host to the main event, which included a concert featuring singer Matteo Bocelli, son of tenor, Andrea.
Not that everyone let the pandemic set their birthday plans back for so long. As was widely reported at the time, Kim Kardashian hired out The Brando in its entirety for her 40th back in 2020, a private resort on the island of Tetiaroa, originally owned by Marlon Brando and now by his children, near Tahiti in French Polynesia. But it seems those that did wait then really went for it when restrictions were fully lifted.
“Post-pandemic we had a huge surge in people wanting out-of-this-world experiences,” says Stuart McNeill, founder of elite London-based lifestyle and travel concierge, Knightsbridge Circle. “People were coming to us with the ‘you only live once’ attitude. Now, as they reflect on the sad events in Ukraine and Israel, this hasn’t really stopped.”
Speaking of the Bocellis, McNeill recounts a celebration trip to Italy that Knightsbridge Circle arranged recently for a large American family, which included an intimate concert hosted by Andrea at his villa in Forte Dei Marmi, with all the proceeds going to the charitable Bocelli Foundation. “Only last week I had a WhatsApp from a member asking us to come up with the ultimate experiences in safe places around the world.”
According to American event planner Colin Cowie, who organised the “Bennifer” wedding at Affleck’s estate in Georgia and is a favourite with Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian, the destination event is a really big growth area in party planning.
“The need to gather and celebrate has never been greater,” Cowie said recently in an interview with US financial publication Barron’s. “My clients want to hold parties everywhere except where they live. They want the special and a different destination offers them that. In the last 12 months and coming up this year, destinations for my events include New Zealand, Paris, Cannes, the Costalegre coast in Mexico, Tuscany, Lake Tahoe and rural farms throughout the US.” Cowie also identified an increase in hiring well known chefs, not just high-end caterers, so now it’s got to be Gabriel Kreuther and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, both of whom have two Michelin-starred restaurants.
“Travelling to do extraordinary things for birthdays and anniversaries has gone stratospheric recently,” adds Jules Maury, Head of Scott Dunn Private, the luxury tour operator’s “by invitation only” arm. “I am booking out top hotels on an exclusive-use basis, as well as luxury lodges like Logger’s in Sweden, Octola in Finland or Singita Milele which opens in northern Tanzania next year. I’m arranging private parties with Michelin-starred chefs, enlisting renowned Egyptologists and polar explorers to come and talk to guests and flying in photographers and film crews to capture it all.”
All the event planners I have spoken to since the weekend agree that what people want now more than ever is an elevated experience and the ability to come away from a celebration with something different to talk about.
“We’ve seen a surge in demand for events that promise not just a party but an unforgettable story – experiences that are not merely grand but genuinely extraordinary,” says James Wall, luxury lifestyle management service Quintessentially’s Global Marketing Director. “Each one seems to surpass the previous for opulence and personal touch. We recently arranged a wedding where the ceremony took place at the Lake Palace in Udaipur and the reception at Catherine Palace just south of St Petersburg, during which guests enjoyed performances by Craig David and the Bolshoi Ballet and Elton John serenaded the couple for their first dance.
“We’ve also turned the serene Place de Passable on the Cote d’Azur into a Buddha Bar-themed oasis for a sun-kissed party of 120 and organised a three-day birthday bash for 150 at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild with an exclusive performance by the legendary Lulu.”
With Kaoru Nakajima raising the bar, one can only wonder how and where the world’s billionaires will party next.