[Special Event]
I must admit that I wasn’t very keen to attend this event as I’m not a fan of Paris Hilton and having attended many many parties over the years I very much doubted that it would be the “Party of the Century” as Malaysian developers are notoriously tight-fisted… When you have that sort of a tagline your party better live up to it ie. don’t over promise and under deliver. In the end Andy Kho persuaded me to go saying that it should be a good event so I told myself to just go with an open mind and off I went.
The parking in Empire City was full by the time I got there so I decided to park at Empire Damansara and take the shuttle over to the party venue which was just a couple of minutes away. Didn’t really fancy waiting half an hour for my turn to board the shuttle to send us over to Empire City and the traffic congestion there meant even more waiting in the shuttle. Well good thing I was in a rather patient mood and fortunately not long after I was in the party venue.
The party was in full swing by the time I entered which was around 9.00pm and I was really very amazed at the setup. Empire City which is a barely completed shopping mall which is not even occupied let alone open to the public, however it was transformed into a super club the likes of which could rival Hennessy Artistry HALO parties! The empty shop lots were transformed into restaurants and bars while the space on the ground floor which is to be an Olympic sized ice skating rink was converted into the main event area. Wow! I was certainly very impressed!
Eventually made my way up to the VIP area which was on the first floor and helped myself to the buffet spread and drinks which included premium alcohol such as G.H. Mumm champagne, Martell Cordon Bleu and V.S.O.P., ABSOLUT vodka, and Chivas Regal, as well as Asahi Super Dry, Kronenbourg 1664 and Carlsberg.
Violinist Caitlin De Ville vowed the crowd by performing while suspended in mid-air sometimes even upside down.
The theme of the party was the glamorous 1920’s (think the Great Gatsby era) and to my surprise quite a lot of people actually took the trouble to dress up according to it!
And then Paris Hilton appeared on stage for her set.
Wow…she’s really quite smart to get people to pay her to press play on her MacBook and sway along to her own hit song. Lol
Well she went on to play a couple more pop hits for around 20 minutes then went on her merry way…
Mark Vincent who’s the winner of Australia’s Got Talent showed his vocal prowess performing some ballads while Taboo from the Black Eyed-Peas got the crowd in a party mood with some fast paced hits!
No brand/ client can get an event 100% perfect and Empire City certainly didn’t. Having said that, I think that Empire City covered all the aspects for a good party – great ambience, lots of decent food, premium alcohol and free flow of drinks until the end of the party (no 2 drink vouchers after 11.00pm rubbish), good crowd with lots of eye-candy, interesting mix of performers and artistes (barring a certain “celeb DJ”), and most important in Malaysia – powerful enough air-conditioning to keep the crowd (some of which were dressed to the nines mind you!) comfortable!
Party of the Century? Definitely not! But they have set the bar really high for future events and parties in Malaysia so I’ve really got to take my hat off to them! If no other brand tops them by 31 December 2015, I’d be happy to name this event as “Party of the Year”!
Photo credits: Andy Kho Photography (www.andykho.com) and author’s own
Photos without Andy Kho’s watermark were shot using the new Sony a5100 (pictured above).
More info on the Sony a5100 at http://www.sony.com.my/product/ilce-5100l
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