All the pomp and ceremony of Friday night’s YouthAIDS gala took place in the ballroom at The Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner, but the real action took place much later in a suite high above.
Following the $1,000-per-plate event, such celebrities as Latin Grammy winner
Jorge Moreno, fashion stylist Philip Bloch, YouthAIDS Founder/Director Kate Roberts and Sir Richard Branson joined the mingling masses in the hotel bar.
But at midnight, the truly lucky moved the party to Moreno's suite, where Moreno and his band jammed the night away before roughly 50 loud, singing and screaming admirers.
“It was like they were at an outside park!” said one observer.
But it wasn’t long before security banged on their door — twice — and asked them to keep it down. At 1:30 a.m., Roberts pleaded with security, reminding them of all the money they had raised that night and all the good they’re doing around the world.
“We’re saving lives!” Roberts declared.
Security caved, but made the party move back to the bar, which the Ritz begrudgingly re-opened for the group.
The party (and the singing and screaming and dancing ...) kept on rocking well into the morning, and, when it became clear that the party might not stop, the hotel’s manager had to make one small demand of the crowd: They’d have to leave the bar by 4:30 a.m. so that the hotel could begin setting up for Saturday brunch.
