Fairground

AROUND the WORLD, ONE PARTY at a TIME

APRIL 2017

DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT

If you'd found an old lamp lying outside the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, in Beverly Hills, on the last Sunday in February, and if you'd given it a rub, and if Graydon Carter's 23 rd Vanity Fair Oscar party had materialized before you, with a procession of golden trophies winding down Santa Monica Boulevard, an IMDb-come-to-life guest list, and a swaying stack of In-N-Out burgers as tall as the Burj Khalifa balanced on a single silver tray—well, let's face it: not the most unbelievable scene you'd have witnessed that night. Unlike the ceremony that preceded it, this year's Oscar party was a malfunction-free affair from beginning to end, with architecture by Basil Walter, production by Pete Barford, food by Thomas Keller, tunes by Apple Music, and departures by Uber. Just before dawn, all traces of revelry had vanished, save for the lamp, freshly inscribed in the hand of V.F. director of special projects and resident genie Sara Marks: KINDLY DO NOT DISTURB UNTIL 2018.