2017 Young Members Ball

The VRC Young Members Ball is a signature event on the club’s calendar that draws over 1000 guests to Crown Palladium each year. In 2017, design&deliver blew the Young Members’ minds with a black and white themed extravaganza that paid homage to the iconic Truman Capote and a bygone era of glamour and glitz.

event typeGala Events

event locationCrown Palladium

# event staff50

Overview

Brief

Approach

Outcome

Following the success of design&deliver’s El Dorado ‘Lost City of Gold’ design for the event in 2016, we were determined to deliver another Young Members Ball that would drop jaws to the floor. The VRC wanted to transform both the Palladium Ballroom and a pre-function lounge area at Crown to re-create the lavish Black and White Masquerade Ball hosted by Capote for the rich and famous in the ‘60s.

design&deliver spent significant time pre-planning – tirelessly developing concepts and mock ups while organising suppliers and logistics – in collaboration with VRC’s in-house events team to turn the Palladium into New York City’s Plaza Ballroom. Black tie guests were greeted by a 25m long balloon installation at the entrance, which created an ethereal, floating trail towards the draped lounge area, and doubled as a media wall and GIF booth. The central stage was extravagantly designed, featuring one of the world’s largest temporary chandelier installations – spanning eight metres in diameter and featuring 21 individual chandeliers. Other bespoke design elements included recreating the classic arches and pillars of the NYC Plaza Ballroom using bespoke Gobo wall lighting, opulent registration and bar areas, and even a private tarot booth – we are devils for the details!

There was a head-turning gasp as guests wandered into our revamped ballroom and stepped back in time to high society New York in the 1960s. The cohesive monochrome design screamed of elegant decadence and drew a huge amount of attention on social media. We provided full technical support for the entertainment programme, featuring a killer solo performance from Sally Cooper, The White Tree and a Ministry of Dance spectacle that created some of the coolest Melbourne event photos of the year. The 2017 Young Members Ball outshone El Dorado’s gold – and design&deliver look forward to pulling another well-dressed rabbit out of the bag in 2018.