Fyre Festival but make it Regency
September 27, 2024 7:44 AM Subscribe
Bridgerton Ball said to the Willy Wonka Experience, "Hold my port." (archive link for NYT)
The Guardian covered this too! Listen, there is so much majestic coverage of this in social media, I couldn't possibly.
The Guardian covered this too! Listen, there is so much majestic coverage of this in social media, I couldn't possibly.
Detroit crock city.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 7:55 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 7:55 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]
Not very demure, not very mindful
posted by jonp72 at 7:58 AM on September 27 [13 favorites]
posted by jonp72 at 7:58 AM on September 27 [13 favorites]
I feel truly bad for these people. The advertising seemed to steal from an actual Bridgerton thing that had toured the country. And you can see in the photos how much care everyone put into their look for the night.
If you're someone who can actually put on an immersive event like this, as you can see, the money is there. People want these things! It's so sad that no one is getting it right. We need the equivalent of Punchdrunk in the US, but for touring events.
posted by haplesschild at 8:17 AM on September 27 [6 favorites]
If you're someone who can actually put on an immersive event like this, as you can see, the money is there. People want these things! It's so sad that no one is getting it right. We need the equivalent of Punchdrunk in the US, but for touring events.
posted by haplesschild at 8:17 AM on September 27 [6 favorites]
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a sucker born every minute.
posted by dannyboybell at 8:20 AM on September 27 [8 favorites]
posted by dannyboybell at 8:20 AM on September 27 [8 favorites]
And look at all those lovely dresses!
The pole dance is inexcusable. If only they had someone to lead the simplest period dances so most people were dancing and not sitting…. Well, that’s news from PEERS/Gaskells, not whatever this wasn’t even.
posted by clew at 8:24 AM on September 27 [4 favorites]
The pole dance is inexcusable. If only they had someone to lead the simplest period dances so most people were dancing and not sitting…. Well, that’s news from PEERS/Gaskells, not whatever this wasn’t even.
posted by clew at 8:24 AM on September 27 [4 favorites]
My event organizer brain keeps on trying to imagine how I would try to do something like this. Smaller for sure.
Very limited food and definitely NOT a sit down dinner with table service. In the Regency romances I've read there's always complaint about the ratafia. (Wasn't watchamacallit Almack's known for its crap refreshments?)
clew's idea of period dance classes would be fabulous. Maybe a rack of dinner jackets so the uneven numbers of men and women could be briefly addressed by people temporarily taking the men's dance role? This "grand ball" event had dance classes prior to the ball (also what a good space for a ball!)
I think smaller rooms (a crush! a veritable crush!), one a small ballroom (a historic house that has a grand foyer or something would have the right vibe, smaller is better than any kind of hotel space that would be so expensive to properly decorate), one a gaming room, and one a retiring room for ladies.
People to hire: Chamber music group, a couple to act as the hosts (or as the Almacks patronesses?), dance instructor, card game instructor, a ladies maid or two in the retiring room. If the budget permitted, maybe a few serving men circulating with drinks, or dancers.
Decorations: Parlor plants, massive flower arrangements, large fancy mirrors.
Um. Metafilter Regency Ball IRL anyone?
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:50 AM on September 27 [18 favorites]
Very limited food and definitely NOT a sit down dinner with table service. In the Regency romances I've read there's always complaint about the ratafia. (Wasn't watchamacallit Almack's known for its crap refreshments?)
clew's idea of period dance classes would be fabulous. Maybe a rack of dinner jackets so the uneven numbers of men and women could be briefly addressed by people temporarily taking the men's dance role? This "grand ball" event had dance classes prior to the ball (also what a good space for a ball!)
I think smaller rooms (a crush! a veritable crush!), one a small ballroom (a historic house that has a grand foyer or something would have the right vibe, smaller is better than any kind of hotel space that would be so expensive to properly decorate), one a gaming room, and one a retiring room for ladies.
People to hire: Chamber music group, a couple to act as the hosts (or as the Almacks patronesses?), dance instructor, card game instructor, a ladies maid or two in the retiring room. If the budget permitted, maybe a few serving men circulating with drinks, or dancers.
Decorations: Parlor plants, massive flower arrangements, large fancy mirrors.
Um. Metafilter Regency Ball IRL anyone?
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:50 AM on September 27 [18 favorites]
I know folks who do English Country Dance! That would be perfect.
posted by sixswitch at 8:53 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]
posted by sixswitch at 8:53 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]
I saw this article and shared it with my Bridgerton-loving household members, but I didn't read it all the way to the bottom. Does it ever say who the jerks were you put this thing you? They've gotta have known that they ripping people off. I'd love to see the state's AG take some action against them for consumer fraud or lean on them in some way to get these attendees refunds.
The photos were so sad. People put so much care into their costumes, and then pffft. The party wasn't there.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:57 AM on September 27 [3 favorites]
The photos were so sad. People put so much care into their costumes, and then pffft. The party wasn't there.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:57 AM on September 27 [3 favorites]
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a sucker born every minute.
I really hope this is just an opportunistic Austen joke and not the shitty victim-blaming it appears to be.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:05 AM on September 27 [19 favorites]
I really hope this is just an opportunistic Austen joke and not the shitty victim-blaming it appears to be.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:05 AM on September 27 [19 favorites]
This just seems like a copycat trying to get the clicks of the first one tbh. It’s just like people staging stunts on TikTok and shit.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:25 AM on September 27
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:25 AM on September 27
I hope the Bridgerton and Bridgerton Experience people sue the shit out of them.
posted by ApathyGirl at 9:34 AM on September 27 [5 favorites]
posted by ApathyGirl at 9:34 AM on September 27 [5 favorites]
Of all places not to hold a Bridgerton Ball, Detroit would be my first pick. Or any other rust belt cities for that matter...A Disco or rap ball, sure thing . And I say this as a proud member of a poor rust belt city.
posted by Czjewel at 9:53 AM on September 27
posted by Czjewel at 9:53 AM on September 27
An Interview With the Pole Dancer From the Bridgerton Event
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:08 AM on September 27 [11 favorites]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:08 AM on September 27 [11 favorites]
Czjewel, I think the contrast between Detroit/rust belt cities in general (identity, reality, history etc) and Bridgerton is what makes this idea so awesome (and so infuriating that the company effed it up so badly). Also based on the pictures, many of the attendees are Black which makes me so happy that Bridgerton the tv show said yes, Regency England wasn't all white and we will show that and hold your grumbles.
Also steampunk Victorian is already a genre so maybe....? If Ford (the company) was established 1903, it's only a few years after the Victorian era ended.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:08 AM on September 27 [11 favorites]
Also steampunk Victorian is already a genre so maybe....? If Ford (the company) was established 1903, it's only a few years after the Victorian era ended.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:08 AM on September 27 [11 favorites]
As someone who has worked at a million (okay HUNDREDS, I don’t actually need to exaggerate) special events/experiences/activations and has made a lot of photo backdrops for this kind of event, people REALLY tend to underestimate their budgets and how much work it is to make an event impressive. I have such secondhand embarrassment and cringe for everyone who got hired to work on this and honestly the producers, too, if they weren’t outright scamming and just in over their heads.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 10:11 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]
posted by jeweled accumulation at 10:11 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]
From the article 1970s linked: "They reached out to me the day of the event and confirmed my booking about three hours before I was supposed to be there. "
Uncle & Me LLC, the group that put this on, seems to have scrubbed every possible site of their presence (except Facebook, oddly), but this doesn't seem to be their first event ever.
spamandkimchi: I am in :)
posted by haplesschild at 10:20 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]
Uncle & Me LLC, the group that put this on, seems to have scrubbed every possible site of their presence (except Facebook, oddly), but this doesn't seem to be their first event ever.
spamandkimchi: I am in :)
posted by haplesschild at 10:20 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]
Of all places not to hold a Bridgerton Ball, Detroit would be my first pick. Or any other rust belt cities for that matter...A Disco or rap ball, sure thing . And I say this as a proud member of a poor rust belt city.
Wow, really? That's some lovely stereotyping you did there. Besides, attendance wasn't the problem. There were definitely people who wanted to be there, and paid $300 plus the cost of their costumes and hairdos etc for the privilege. This is the kind of event, too, that friend groups from the suburbs, small towns, and citiesas far away as Lansing, where I live, might come in for. I didn't know about this event, and couldn't presently have afforded it, but I'd have thought about it, and off the top of my head I can think of several local friends who would have been into it as well.
posted by Well I never at 11:38 AM on September 27 [22 favorites]
Wow, really? That's some lovely stereotyping you did there. Besides, attendance wasn't the problem. There were definitely people who wanted to be there, and paid $300 plus the cost of their costumes and hairdos etc for the privilege. This is the kind of event, too, that friend groups from the suburbs, small towns, and citiesas far away as Lansing, where I live, might come in for. I didn't know about this event, and couldn't presently have afforded it, but I'd have thought about it, and off the top of my head I can think of several local friends who would have been into it as well.
posted by Well I never at 11:38 AM on September 27 [22 favorites]
Secret Cinema did the Bridgerton Experience mentioned above. They haven't done anything lately, so there's a real hole in the market right now.
posted by fiercekitten at 12:44 PM on September 27
posted by fiercekitten at 12:44 PM on September 27
Of all places not to hold a Bridgerton Ball, Detroit would be my first pick. Or any other rust belt cities for that matter...A Disco or rap ball
I can't stop staring at this sentence. It's just so naked.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 2:54 PM on September 27 [12 favorites]
I can't stop staring at this sentence. It's just so naked.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 2:54 PM on September 27 [12 favorites]
jacquilynne, it's an opportunistic Austen joke. Only realized after posting it could be read as victim blaming.
posted by dannyboybell at 3:53 PM on September 27
posted by dannyboybell at 3:53 PM on September 27
If you're someone who can actually put on an immersive event like this, as you can see, the money is there. People want these things!
https://www.metafilter.com/202689/Help-Police-Murder#8526720
"I know it's cliche to bring everything back to capitalism, but it's literally true that you can't charge people enough to do the good version of this because people just don't have it.
All the billionaires have it, and that's why we can't have nice things like Santa's Village anymore."
posted by BiggerJ at 9:33 PM on September 27 [1 favorite]
https://www.metafilter.com/202689/Help-Police-Murder#8526720
"I know it's cliche to bring everything back to capitalism, but it's literally true that you can't charge people enough to do the good version of this because people just don't have it.
All the billionaires have it, and that's why we can't have nice things like Santa's Village anymore."
posted by BiggerJ at 9:33 PM on September 27 [1 favorite]
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(well, except for the Fyre people. Fuck those guys)
posted by aramaic at 7:47 AM on September 27 [5 favorites]