Wall Street holiday parties are
back...but don't tell anyone
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[December 22, 2016]
By Lawrence Delevingne and Olivia Oran
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street holiday
parties this year took place in luxury venues like the Waldorf Astoria,
featured women dressed as glowing angels, and had fine wine, scotch and
bourbon on hand.
But organizers of the soirées, conscious of tighter budgets and public
scrutiny, are not eager to discuss the merriment.
Big financial firms started curtailing year-end bashes in 2008 as
taxpayer bailouts, populist outrage and weak profits created an
environment where lavish celebrations were frowned upon. Some investment
banks stopped sponsoring corporate holiday parties altogether, advising
individual teams to use their own budgets for more intimate gatherings.
Catering managers and event planners said that while holiday party
spending is still down relative to its pre-financial crisis peak, Wall
Street is starting to come back on the scene.
"It's a more optimistic climate," said Bill Spinner, director of
catering at The Pierre, a Taj Hotel in New York.
The number of Wall Street firms with holiday events at The Pierre was
steady this year, he said, but more people attended.
Other planners said the atmosphere was lighter in 2016, with winter
wonderland and carnival themes featuring such flourishes as giant snow
globe photobooths and game stations.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Dec/22/images/ads/current/lincoln_park_lda_christmas_2015.png)
A Reuters review of the financial industry holiday scene found parties
sponsored by Credit Suisse Group AG <CSGN.S>, Bank of New York Mellon
Corp <BK.N>, Moelis & Co <MC.N>, BlackRock Inc <BLK.N>, Blackstone Group
LP <BX.N>, KKR & Co LP <KKR.N>, Apollo Global Management Inc <APO.N>,
PIMCO, AQR Capital Management LP, Bain Capital, York Capital Management
LLC and Chilton Investment Management, among others.
Employees enjoyed themselves at swanky venues in New York, London,
Boston, Chicago, Southern California, Sydney and Wroclaw, Poland,
according to attendees and Instagram photos.
Representatives of some firms said they were reticent to discuss the
parties because they have tried to keep such events out of the news
since the financial crisis. One argued his firm's party was more austere
than in prior years, and that festive Instagram photos with ostentatious
hashtags misrepresented it. Others declined to comment at all.
B. Allan Kurtz, managing director at New York events venue Gotham Hall,
which hosts about half a dozen Wall Street holiday gatherings each year,
said the standard budget is $100,000 to $200,000.
Spending is similar to what it was in the years leading up to the crisis
but then the money went further, Kurtz said. It works out to about 20
percent more than today's dollars adjusted for inflation. One expensive
feature that has been absent since 2008 is a hired celebrity entertainer
or singer.
Private-equity firm KKR used Gotham Hall for its party, which Kurtz
declined to comment on.
Whatever they spend, most firms want to keep their events out of the
public eye, he said. "They don't want people to know they are hosting a
party."
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![](../images/122216pics/news_p29.jpg)
A holiday decoration is seen over Wall St. sign outside the New York
Stock Exchange, November 27, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
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GATSBY, CARNIVAL THEMES
Parties thrown by PIMCO in London and Credit Suisse in Poland, where
the bank has one of its largest back office operations, this year
each had Great Gatsby themes, recalling the 1920s era of decadence
and social change.
PIMCO's featured a "flash mob" of dancers from a company called
Brazilian Fantasy, while Credit Suisse's was full of young men and
women in "Roaring 20s" garb, according to Instagram posts.
The dance floor at Credit Suisse's party was backed by a digital
image of actor Leonardo DiCaprio holding a cocktail while portraying
Jay Gatsby. DiCaprio played Gatsby in the 2013 film version of
American author F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, "The Great Gatsby"
set on New York's Long Island.
PIMCO's other holiday party near its Newport Beach headquarters
featured women in bedazzled snow-white angel costumes whose wings
glowed with LED lights.
Private equity firm Apollo's party, hosted in a Greek restaurant
near Central Park, featured "live statues": humans standing
completely still, painted to look like marble. They evoked images of
Greek gods such as Adonis, Aphrodite - and, of course, Apollo.
AQR Capital, the hedge fund firm run by Cliff Asness, had a
carnival-themed bash at luxury Manhattan event venue Cipriani. One
attendee's photo showed champagne being poured into a glass through
a poof of nitrogen steam, and carried the caption: "Snakes, clouds,
swords, oh my!"
Blackstone's fête was held in a Waldorf Astoria ballroom whose
balconies were decked with red, green and white boughs. Hundreds of
partygoers were making merry in formal attire. There were a few
dresses, too, but the New York crowd appeared to mostly be men.
The Pierre's Spinner said the typical Wall Street holiday party has
changed from stuffy buffet-style dinners with seating arrangements
to networking events where guests mingle while drinking wine and
noshing on high-end appetizers.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Dec/22/images/ads/current/stclara_christmas_LDA_111914.png)
"There was a real emphasis on making events different but watching
costs at the same time," he said.
(Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne and Olivia Oran; Writing by Lauren
Tara LaCapra; Editing by Grant McCool)
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