- Despite efforts to stamp out secretive, exclusive, and often off-the-record events, “the Davos underground” where much of the wheeling, dealing, and decadence occurs, continues to define the experience.
- An Anthony Scaramucci-hosted wine tasting and tech company-funded Sting concert packed venues, but with Russian oligarchs banned again, some WEF attendees say the opulence and debauchery are gone, and “Davos isn’t really Davos anymore.”
DAVOS, Switzerland — For as long as countries and companies have rented out chalets and storefronts on the Promenade of the small Swiss ski village that hosts the World Economic Forum, ancillary programming hosted beyond the reaches of the Congress Center, the annual event’s official venue, has been the lifeblood of the weeklong gathering.
In fact, the continued commoditization of the town’s high street has helped the Davos underground thrive. It is typically at these secretive, exclusive, and often off-the-record events where much of the wheeling, dealing, and decadence continues to happen.
Here’s what you missed inside the places where leaders in business and politics let loose at the 54th edition of the forum.
No more Russian oligarchs at Davos
With the Russian delegation again banned from the remote Alpine resort town, the parties weren’t quite as opulent or as debaucherous as they used to be, according to multiple, long-time World Economic Forum regulars.
In years past, billionaire oligarchs bankrolled many of the lavish and infamous events held on the sidelines of the annual gathering of the world’s elite. The kind of parties where guests are spoon-fed caviar by models dressed in costumes and blockbuster names in business and politics let loose and talk shop in a way where no filter sometimes yields results.
“The Russians aren’t here anymore, so Davos isn’t really Davos anymore,” said one forum attendee who has been coming to the event since 2018.
In the early days of the forum, Russian business leaders operating in a post-Soviet world got a reputational makeover when they landed a place at the global convention. But as President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine rages on, so too does the invite moratorium for everyone from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to Moscow-born business moguls and Putin confidantes.
Sure, there are still the ultra-exclusive dinners hosted by the likes of the Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros. Anti-Putin activist Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital, who no longer attends the official program, citing costs, convened guests on the first night of the forum at Ochsen Steakhouse, which boasts a menu of exotic game including zebra, ostrich, horse, and wild boar.
The Illuminati’s Eye of Providence even made an appearance, as people dressed as monks claiming to work at Moonshot Investor Network, which focuses on alternative investments like private equity, went along the promenade handing out Renaissance-styled scrolls to a select few. When unfurled, the document revealed a secret invitation that read, “YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN,” with a corresponding QR code beneath. One person who followed the rabbit hole further tells CNBC that the QR code linked to a website mentioning seances and rituals. It also involved a few more hoops to traverse, including online puzzles, before the party destination and time was revealed.
“It was a great marketing ploy,” this person told CNBC.
But Davos regulars maintain that things just aren’t as lavish or as wild as they once were.
The Mooch’s annual wine soirée
On Tuesday night, it was mob-like conditions in the lobby of Hotel Europe, where Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci was holding the 13th edition of the Annual Davos Wine Forum Tasting.
Guests queued for nearly an hour in mosh pit-level intimacy, waiting for a wristband and admission up the stairs to the famed soirée, which offers guests a curated selection of so-called “100 point” wines from around the world, such as the 2003 Chateau Latour which sells for $995 a bottle.
The delay had to do with the fact that the party’s co-host — SkyBridge Capital founder and former White House Communications Director to President Donald Trump for ten days in 2017 — showed up late to his own shindig, and subsequently had trouble getting past the security detail hired to safeguard his event.
Among the throng of people being pushed around by wine-hungry rule-breakers shoving their way to the base of the stairs was Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
Indeed, the wine tasting often draws in Davos’s flashiest names. Matt Damon, Richard Branson, and Andrea Bocelli were reportedly spotted there last year. This year, U.S. Senator Chris Coons, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and a mix of media’s top brass were all in attendance.
By 11 p.m., the main supply of wine had dried up and bartenders transitioned to serving water instead, but as is typically the case at the annual tasting, the wine continued to flow in a secret backroom reserved for the crème de la crème of the guest list.
“That’s when you get the good s—,” said a Davos attendee who is regularly selected to join the exclusive backroom of the Annual Davos Wine Forum Tasting.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/01/31/the-davos-underground-inside-the-secret-parties-of-the-elite-world.html
