Georgina Damm reveals the lavish private parties of Melbourne’s elite

Melbourne’s wealthy elite are forking out for lavish private parties that push boundaries, including naked trapeze artists, celebrity performers and even dungeons.

Georgina Damm, founder of caterer and event management company Damm Fine Food, has lifted the lid on the unusual event requests from Melbourne’s cashed-up elite.

Melbourne’s cashed up wealthy elite are forking out for extraordinary private parties that push boundaries, with event requests including the building of a dungeon, naked trapeze artists performing above dinner guests and international celebrity performers.

Catering and event guru, Georgina Damm, has peeled back the curtain to give mere mortals a peek inside a very private, secretive part of Melbourne society where nothing is impossible.

Damm is the boss of Georgina Damm Fine Food Co, a Melbourne based event and catering company, that specialises in creating unique experiences.

“If somebody wants a service, I am out there to find it,” Damm told Sam Newman’s You Cannot Be Serious podcast of putting an event together.

“It can start with something as simple as strippers, not hard to find, but it could be dwarfs, it could be I need ponies or zebras, I need somebody, I don’t know, who blows smoke out of their arse.

Georgina Damm has given a peek inside the extraordinary private parties of Melbourne’s cash-up elite. Picture Andrew Tauber

“People have strange requests and I love my job because I get to start researching and finding out where to find these things.

“When people are doing really private events, and I mean I work for lots of people, they are not all wealthy but a lot of them are, the more wealth, the more kind of obscure, sometimes, the request.”

Damm, who said her event clients were mainly Melbourne companies and families, recounted some of the more unusual entertainment elements she had found for private, lavishly budgeted events including naked male trapeze artists.

“(That was) interesting appendage swinging through a marquee,” she told Newman.

“There were two actually, they worked in tandem. People like to push people’s boundaries.”

Another time she was asked to create a Halloween party inspired by the party scene in the film Saltburn.

Dua Lipa was set to perform at a Melbourne party before she became unwell.

“For that one we tried to secure (global star) Dua Lipa, who actually was secured but then was unwell,” she said.

“I have built dungeons for people with girls in harness and whips. … … I found these strippers, once, that actually came in naked and put their clothes on and then left; reverse strippers. These girls came in completely naked, everyone was absolutely shocked, and then they proceeded to very elegantly put their underwear on, clothes, boots, jackets and walked out.”

International celebrity performers are often requested as part of an event brief.

“When people are performing an Australia they will often do private shows that you will never know about,” she said.

“Everyone has a fee, and you just find out if the fee is in the ballpark and then people weigh up in their overall budget – do I want to spend that much on that person?”

While her expertise is creating a great event and making sure it runs smoothly, not everything goes to plan.

“I recently had a wedding marquee for 350 people that burnt to the ground while everybody was out the front having pre-dinner drinks,” Damm said.

“It was an electrical issue and it was a very hot day. A light blew and the marquee caught on fire. It burnt to the ground in minutes.

“The entire wedding was watching it. Hats off to the family, they said ‘can we continue with something?’.”

Damm hit the phone, sent staff to Dan Murphy’s for booze, and had furniture, plates, glasses, cutlery trucked in in record time.

“We set up trestle tables, bought alcohol, got the bar going, kept the band playing and they partied until four in the morning.”