Playing the field                        (Reviews)

By day, Cartier International celebrated its 25th anniversary and by night two big parties lit up the darkness of Guards Polo Club. Old faithful, Chinawhite held court in one marquee while the newcomer Player & Grooms party hosted its debut bash nearby. 

RedKarpet lurched through the lasers from Hype's vast marquee into the VIP enclosure at Chinawhite to discover two parties of distinct character - and plenty of colourful characters.   Sat Bal (11 Aug'09)

It's been all change on the festive circuit at Guards. This year Hype Party Planning displaced the annual party held by Smyle. Hype was itself displaced by event organiser GSP when GSP took over the Chinawhite party last year.

Nonetheless, co-operation was rife as GSP's Jules Stevenson warmly greeted Hype's Marcus Rendle before procuring VIP wristbands for cricketer Shane Warne.

Hype's Players & Grooms party was a polo purist event . Chinawhite simply played to its tried and tested glam strengths, rendering the polo almost incidental.

(Above, right) Jules Stevenson and friends

  Chinawhite party     Organiser - GSP

Ethos -  Unabashed celeb glam hedonism

In the VIP enclosure an animated Jade Jagger (left) stepped up the party pitch when she joined DJ Sam Young at the decks. GSP had designed the VIP area to allow guests to  view the main party from the enclosure via a rectangular cut-out recess which looked out onto the heaving throng of revellers.

An exotic lunch of Pan Asian-inspired dishes was served and later Krug, Dom Perignon and Veuve Clicquot popped to the music.

Celebrities included a baseball-hatted Leonardo DiCaprio, Neve Campbell, Anna Friel, Geri Halliwell and society figures Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe and Chloe Buckworth & Poppy Delevingne.

(Above) Waiting staff anticipate guests

"This year's Cartier International was another hugely successful event," said Jeremy Hartley, MD of Chinawhite. "We were once again delighted to be part of the celebrations made even more special this year by the 25th anniversary of Cartier's sponsorship. The Chinawhite enclosure once again hosted an array of celebrated stars from stage and screen and the event overall was a tremendous success."

   

Anna Friel                                                Chloe Buckworth and Poppy Delevingne

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Players & Grooms party       Organiser - Hype

Ethos- Polo purist Swarovski'd with glam

Marcus Rendle -

Hype Party Planning :

"We were approached by Guards Polo Club to work with them to create a designated area for the Players & Grooms. They were looking for something that did not compete with other facilities on site but provided a more cost effective alternative.

"Despite having a limited lead time to sell tickets we catered for 1,000 guests who booked in a three week run up to the event.


"The fact that we were familiar with Guards Polo Club certainly made the event easier to produce. At such a high profile event attended by royalty there will always be security and specific concerns above the norm and I am sure that our familiarisation with procedures as result of our past work with Chinawhite was of added value.


"We were lucky to be only one of two areas that had an 11.30pm licence where the rest of the site closed at 7pm, thereby giving guests the ability to party and enjoy themselves after the polo itself. We also tried to keep our prices as cost effective as possible so not to alienate the very people that we were trying to attract i.e. members of the HPA and in particular the Players & Grooms.


"People make parties and the fact that so many people knew each other created a fantastic atmosphere. We did not have a celebrity VIP guest list because this was not about PR for us but about giving something back to Guards Polo Club and HPA members.

"We had a fantastic live PA from Emma Deigman who has recently been on tour with Girls Aloud and she has a number of guests such as Sarah Harding, Sam and Holly Branson (pic right) that came to watch her. Shane Warne also spent a large proportion of time in our enclosure.

"The event was well received by Guards Polo Club and the feedback from the Players & Grooms was positive which is great newsbecause these were the very people we were trying to cater for.

I don’t think that we would change too much next year but now we have a database of happy guests it will be able to sell more tickets next year."

Related screenings:

Cartier's 25th                                      Hurlingham Polo

     

RK  _________________________________________