Win a luxurious holiday to Cape Town Minette Marrin 30.08 Where am I It’s never mentioned, but aren’t most charity parties dire Parading under
the title “party”, they rarely deliver what is technically known as a good time. “Your standard-formula charity do goes: everyone gets ripped off, nobody has a brilliant time, but ‘it’s for charity’,” says Rollo Gabb, whose flamboyant, wild parties at his Shropshire home, Stanley, have become a sort of White Tie and Tiara for the more bohemian members of the young establishment. “When I started planning Stanley, the charity aspect was an absolutely key component in deciding to put it on: 100% of our profits, plus some of our turnover (about £75,000 per party), go to charity. But we also want to put on the best party ever.” Gabb and others like him form a growing breed of philanthropic hedonists, proper party people — sinners, some might say — but with sincerely virtuous motives. And, thankfully, their parties are good, in both senses of the word.
The fashion designer Bella Freud’s parties in aid of her Hoping Foundation, which works with Palestinian children, are also always eagerly anticipated. “I put my heart and soul into doing something ingenious, uplifting and fun. The whole thing is imaginative and upmarket, which is unusual for a charity event.”