The assignment: make the lawn of the Echelon Residence look like Austin’s version of the Amalfi coast.
The occasion: a private music festival featuring Matoma on the turntables and Portugal.The Man as the evening headliner. The sprawling outdoor lawn was turned into a private lido, flaunting a custom designed and fabricated stage as its crown jewel. The guest count was kept intimate and small, as children and adults alike enjoyed a day full of lounging by the lake, enjoying mouth-watering bites, hand-crafted drinks, and entertainment for all. Oh, and did we mention the music?? All said, we successfully pulled off a day to remember — even when the rain came pouring down with 40 mph winds and forced the party inside. (Possibly the last time it rained in Austin??)
This week we’ll take you down memory lane to the one and only... Echefest 2023.
PRIVATE LIDO
The vision for this party was Slim Aarons meets 70s California surfer girl. To bring this to life, we set out to create our own version of the Amalfi coast, first, by designing custom, brightly colored umbrellas made for us by Santa Barbara Designs. We then created our own restaurant and bar under an expansive tent, along with private cabanas covering the lawn, allowing guests to lounge, mingle and indulge while not being overexposed to the intense Texas sun.
Speaking of indulge...
Our friends at Global Group served everything from mahi tacos to burgers with mouth-watering fresh ingredients made on-site and attentively served by their friendly servers (who we dressed in cabana stripes for the occasion). Leave it to the Here Nor There team to get immensely creative with the drink menu. Featuring summer drinks named after Portugal.The Man songs to give guests hints of who our headliner would be.
Some of the drinks:
Atomic Man
White Rum, Dark Rum, Pineapple, Pomegranate
Lovers in Love
Raspberry Aperol, Rosé Pamplemousse, Yuzu, Bubbles
Just a Fool
Japanese Whisky, Clarified Coconut, Toasted Sesame, Soda
THE GUESTS
Each year we give the guests a prompt on how to dress in order to truly bring the ambiance to life. It’s like our version of the Met Gala. This year 70s beach fashion was requested and guests were not shy on bringing their stylish ensembles to come and play. Here are our favorites.
FLORALS
Upon entering party ground zero, the guests were greeted with the custom-made Echefest sign along with a 1967 Scout 800 car covered with thousands of artificial flowers cascading down the side. This theme was carried throughout the party, where larger than life flowers were a mainstay in each element of the decor.
ACTIVITIES
Custom-made pickle ball court, giant slide float on the Lake, jewel face paint, braid bar, and a complimentary accessory wall.
STAGE & ENTERTAINMENT
We got together with two awesome local brands to design a groovy stage complete with a screen to display videos in the background.
The summer festival kicked off with Motoma on
the turntables underneath custom-made palm leaves.
Our headliner Portugal.The Man played until the a thundering rain came pouring down! Little did guests know that we were already improvising our next move...a living room jam session. This intimate set was the perfect way to end a perfect night.
