The Evening Standard describes the display as “a shameless display of debaucherous indulgence.” In the restaurant, diners can order pasta for five hundred dollars and have it served by servers in togas while they sit beneath statues of Greek gods, winged lions, and unicorns. In a nod to Grecian luxury and Roman debauchery, a floor-to-ceiling painting recreates Thomas Couture’s “The Romans in their Decadence.”
A new members’ club will open in April 2023 behind Bacchanalia. Apollo’s Muse is the name of the private members club that will only allow 500 people to join. The luxurious aesthetic of the club is reflected in the velvet rope access. Conde Nast Traveler describes the space as “a masterclass in’more is more’ design.”
Singapore is experiencing a similar need for release, which has led to the emergence of a burgeoning rave scene. In a city notorious for its strictness, where there was a two-year ban on parties and nightclubs, with live music venues reopening only in April 2022, people are turning to dance parties as a way of finding joy. One Singaporean raver said to the BBC, “Now everyone is revenge partying.” The COVID policies were insane.
Kenneth Carter, Interim dean of Oxford College, and Charles Howard Candler, professor of psychology at Emory University, say that revenge experiences are on the rise. Carter told Wunderman Thompson Intelligence that he is driven by “a thirst for the unusual, authentic experiences, and newness.”
Torquil McIntosh, Simon Mitchell, and the co-founders of Sybarite Design Agency agree that people are looking for an escape from their everyday lives. They find it in spaces “that transport them away” and “take them on a journey.”
The Intelligence Take
These lavish openings of Apollo’s Muse and Bacchanalia come at a moment when the majority of the world is experiencing a crisis in the cost of living. The New York Times wrote that Bacchanalia was “as gleefully in step with the grim mood of this country as clown cars at a funeral.”
They are also tapping into cultural longings for experiences that reawaken wonder and enchantment — perhaps driven by the cost of living crisis along with other societal and economic stressors. The preliminary data of a Wunderman Thompson Intelligence report, which will be released soon, shows that 61% in the US and UK say that “life is less exciting now than it was before” and that 73% want to “feel something,” to “feel alive.”
The New York Times concluded that if you cannot beat them, then join them. “You can either recoil from the cartoonish debauchery or surrender to this immersive performance and snap some selfies along with everyone else.”
