On Saturday night, the annual Life Ball took place in the city famed for its ballrooms and waltzes. Alice Wyllie went along to hear the serious message behind the glamour
IT'S A party so flamboyant, so outrageous, so decadent and so utterly camp it makes Elton John's annual white tie and tiara ball look like a village barn dance. On Saturday night, celebrities from the worlds of modelling, pop music, design and film
flocked to Vienna for the annual Life Ball, a gala event which raises money for HIV and Aids charities.
Organised annually by the charity Aids Life, in 2007 the Life Ball raised 1.2 million (about £955,000) and this year its organisers hope to top that record-breaking total. Half of the proceeds will be allocated to projects in Austria, with the rest going to international projects, with the help of the American Foundation for Aids Research (Amfar).
This is the 16th year of Europe's largest Aids charity event, which sees some 40,000 revellers watch a free outdoor show in Rathausplatz, the square in front of the city hall of the Austrian capital, before 4,000 invitees head inside the building to enjoy an extravagant celebration of life. In the spirit of the traditional Viennese ball – though with more body glitter and nipple tassles – the event was founded in 1992 by Gery Keszler (he still organises it) and in years past has seen stellar guests including Sir Elton John, Catherine Deneuve, Liza Minnelli, Naomi Campbell and Bill Clinton.
This year is no exception, with actress Sharon Stone (the chairwoman of Amfar's Campaign for Aids Research), Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall (who presented a 100,000 prize to Care Austria for its HIV/Aids project in Kenya), rock legend Debbie Harry, veteran supermodel Linda Evangelista, British band The Feeling and Scotland's own Alan Cumming all making an appearance. And The Scotsman is also on the guest list.
Life Ball is an event to which celebrities seem happy to lend their support. When I ask the Blondie singer Debbie Harry – who is performing here tonight, resplendent in a red dress and matching red Aids ribbon – how she got involved, her response is typically dry.
"They must have caught me at a weak moment," she jokes, arching an eyebrow. "No, I've supported Aids and HIV charities throughout my career, so I was more than happy to get involved in the Life Ball. It's a great event for a great cause and I'm having fun."
Each year, the event is hosted by a different fashion designer. Past incumbents include John Galliano, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood and Donatella Versace, to name a few. This year the British label Agent Provocateur – makers of "the sexiest lingerie in the world", according to Kylie Minogue – takes over the catwalk with a truly extravagant fashion show, set to music by Dirty Stop Out, the band fronted by Agent Provocateur's founder, Joe Corre, and former Clash guitarist Mick Jones.
The link between the fashion industry and Aids charities is a strong one, with organisations such as Designers Against Aids and Fashion Fights Aids, as well as countless smaller fashion events, all raising funds to help raise money, awareness and support to help those affected by the disease.
"To quote fashion photographer Mario Testino, the fashion industry was decimated when HIV came into western society," says Tony Kerridge of Fashion Fights Aids. "In the US and western Europe, gay men were among the first to be affected by HIV – and there were a lot of (gay] men working in the fashion industry.
"So, this link remains between fashion and the fight against Aids, largely because so many people in the industry have watched their friends die. Even today, when the disease isn't something that's affecting gay men exclusively, that support is unwavering."
"Words matter," Sharon Stone says to the assembled crowd. "We can't end Aids if we don't stand up for our humanity."
Backstage, things are getting chaotic. Models for the Agent Provocateur show are being helped into the tiniest scraps of fabric, a make-up artist is blowing glittery dust on to cleavages and legendary drag queen Amanda Lepore – who is performing the Life Ball song – is having crystals glued on to her exposed flesh. "I love the Life Ball – I just adore the fashion!" she tells me, as she holds a crystal in place.
It's a typically sexy Agent Provocateur fashion show, with models strutting down a catwalk shaped like an enormous red Aids ribbon, wearing everything from extravagant bridal lingerie to black leather playsuits. Top British models Lily Cole and Poppy Delevigne, exit the stage on the back of enormous Harley Davidsons, while naughty police officers brandish their truncheons as glitter rains down from the ceiling.
This eye-popping scenario is nothing, however, compared with the Bacchanalian party that's now well underway throughout the city hall. By midnight, 4,000 people are packed into the building; an enormous courtyard has been transformed into a dance floor; dotted around are inflatable seats, velvet thrones and giant plastic lipsticks and a lighting system renders the whole setting positively surreal.
Each of the surrounding function rooms has been given a different theme – from a dark vision of a woodland fairytale to futuristic graffiti – with amazing performances taking place in all of them. Robots zoom around the dance floor, soapy bubbles fill the air and guests run around squirting water pistols filled with vodka at each other. Bars serve somewhere around 100,000 drinks to the thirsty guests, who also enjoy a cornucopia of canapés ranging from hot dogs to sushi.
It makes a sharp contrast to our historic, formal surroundings with their magnificent gothic arches, but this year's theme – "landing on planet Life Ball" – is all about embracing other worlds. Looking around me, it has to be said that the guests have certainly risen to the challenge.
Feathers, glitter, silver body paint, capes and masks all compete for attention as, for one night only, Vienna's residents re-imagine themselves as sexy aliens. Having tentatively adhered to the theme with just a slick of silvery eyeshadow, I feel a little ashamed at my own lack of effort on the costume front, but I'm relieved to see I'm not alone.
Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor (whose husband, Richard Jones, is bass guitarist with The Feeling) tells me – as she ineffectually rubs at some blue body paint smeared on her arm – that even in her skin-tight black leather dress she feels a little under-dressed.
Meanwhile, Sex And The City stylist Patricia Field applauds the sheer extravagance of some of the costumes. Dressed head-to-toe in blazing scarlet, from her fiery hair to a crystal-encrusted mask, this Life Ball veteran tells me that the outfits she created for the forthcoming Sex And The City film are "more extravagant than ever, but not as extravagant as this!" She gestures towards a man whose ensemble is made entirely of plastic eyeballs: "It puts me to shame," the flamboyant New Yorker jokes.
Each year, a Life Ball queen – the person wearing the most creative costume – is crowned, and this year the tricky task of choosing the 25 finalists falls to Alan Cumming, who joked beforehand that he was "still accepting bribes".
"It isn't my first time," the Scots actor tells me, tongue in cheek, alluding to the fact that he has been a supporter of this event for several years. "It's just so huge – there's no other Aids event on this scale and it's the most amazing party. So much fun and so extravagant!"
So extravagant, in fact, that it goes on until 5am, by which point my dress is smeared in the body paint and glitter of fellow party-goers, and soaked with vodka from those pesky water pistols.
Weary yet exhilarated by all I have seen, in the early morning I wander back to my hotel. The streets are filled with "aliens", whose costumes are by now looking a little the worse for wear, but they are still in party mode as dawn approaches, chanting this year's Life Ball motto: Love is infinite. Life is universal.
The full article contains 1367 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
