LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 11/07/07

Words :: Sean Starke // Images :: Sean Starke

So here I am in London, the weather has finally turned friendly, and the fifth annual London Design Festival is about to begin.
This year’s LDF, held September 15 through 25, boasts its most expansive programme ever – 221 public projects and events and 152 one-off events, launches, private views and receptions. The buzz in the city is electric because Fashion Week is also in full swing, and the very best designers, architects and fashionistas have all descended on the capital to feed on the spectacle and show their stuff.
Now, it should be noted that I’m at the LDF in the first place because I’m directing a new multi-media opera that the festival has (surprisingly) commissioned. This is a first, the idea being to add an evening performance programme to the events and exhibitions. The obscure credential proved completely irrelevant in all respects except the most important one: VIP access to the parties.
Held at the Royal Festival Hall inside the Southbank Centre (the new centralized “hub” of the LDF), and ostentatiously saturated with champagne and crystal, the launch party was trying hard for sophistication and luxury – and for the most part achieved it. In addition to the champagne provided by Veuve Clicquot, main festival sponsor Swarovski Crystal Palace installed an exhibition of designer chandeliers in the ballroom. Curated by Phillips de Pury and Company, the exhibition included commissions by Gaetano Pesce, Fredrikson Stallard, and Yves Béhar. More sculptural than functional, these rather stunning works prove that Crystal Palace heiress Nadja Swarovski has succeeded in re-branding her great, great grandfather’s company away from those kitschy little crystal figurines with which it has been associated in recent years.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone presented the LDF’s first annual award of the Design Medal to Zaha Hadid for “her relentless pursuit of perfection in her work,” citing among other things her design for London’s Olympic Aquatics Centre, which helped secure London’s bid for the 2012 Olympics.
Back to the champagne, it was all Veuve Clicquot, all night. Something about that signature yellow-orange coloured label just makes me thirsty. I guess I’m not alone because, according to my friend Alessandra Canavesi, one of the event organizers, the 800-strong crowd managed to drink no fewer than 804 magnums of the bubbly. My math is not very good, but that sounds like at least one magnum each.
It was all down hill from there and the rest of the festival is a bit of a blur. The opera came off well, with a nice little review in the Guardian, and I met many designers doing interesting things in almost every discipline. Overall, this year’s opening gala was a fitting launch to what has become a giant event on the international design calendar.

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