Nuit Blanche, the Insead Summer Ball
Lucky attended the Summer Ball last night, for many years now the largest event on the social calendar. It's an occasion to get dressed up and go to a decadent party; insofar as this is normal practice each weekend here, it is taken to an entirely different level at events like this. The venue for the event was Château Courance, originally occupied by Louis XIII. The grounds were so large it took more than five minutes to proceed from the entrance gate into the castle itself, down a candlelit walkway between two reflecting mirror pools. All of the guests were in black tie, making this party the largest formal event I have ever attended.
There is a large alumni tradition of attending the ball - there were hundreds of alums celebrating their 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-year reunions. They were thrilled at participating in one of the grand traditions here, and it showed. Every five minutes you would see people yell out, "Hey! Great to see you again!" as they ran into classmates from years past.
The weather had been pouring rain all day, but Thor finally smiled and cleared the skies a couple hours before the event began. This allowed the guests to wander from the main party tent in the front courtyard to the castle itself and the casino tent in the back. While it was cold (8 C) it was not unbearable and the tents were heated just fine.
Shortly after arriving, we were informed that we should proceed to the rear grounds to view the fireworks. Once there, we were treated to one of the most beautiful pyrotechnic displays I have ever witnessed. It was set to a musical medley spanning jazz, Arabic folk, and house music, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes long. Talk about surreal - eighteen hundred guests treated to their own personal fireworks show over a small lake in a château.
The catering, which in recent years had become a souce of problems, recovered nicely this year. There was plenty of champagne (granted, as long as you knew who to ask) and the food was yummy. Tons of hors d'oevres were followed by crêpes with flambéed bananas and melted chocolate - delicious. Around five in the morning, a full American breakfast appeared, with scrambled eggs, sliced ham, accompagnied by croissants with butter and jam. It was marvelous.
Music through the night was provided by live bands alternating with DJs, giving a great range of music to enjoy. I remember listening to Funk 'n Bleau (an Insead student jazz band), a large Latin American band pumping out classics like "Guantanamera", and another student band comprised of 1991 alumni. The DJs were fantastic - around 4am the room was filled with exceptionally fine deep house, and everyone was dancing. For Lucky this was perhaps the high point of the evening, enjoying great music with friends. Hats off to the DJs, who had the impossible task of keeping a diverse crowd happy and energized through the night.
The low point of the evening: running into one of my favorite professors from Period 1 who asked, "By the way, do you write a blog?" Uhhh... can you say busted? "Because one of my colleagues told me about it. I don't know who writes it but you were my best guess." I countered with a few blatant evasions, and he replied, "It's funny. Not that I read it every day..." before strolling off with his partner. Note to self: make writing more anonymous.
Lucky finally got to bed at six-thirty with the sun already high, the moon still visible in the blue morning dawn. When he woke up, he had lost his voice, but this is a minor price to pay for a night that can only be described by one word: epic.
6:27:22 PM 
|
