Planning a yacht charter in 2024 and want to organise a party your guests won’t forget? GF Entertainment founder and events veteran Emmanuel Akintunde gives his professional advice on what makes a showstopping superyacht soiree, and fills us in on some of the most noteworthy yacht parties he has hosted.
The 2024 Mediterranean summer yachting season is in full swing. Opened with the Cannes Film Festival from May 13 to 25, the marinas will now be full until September, with superyachts hosting guests at the world’s most exclusive events — from Grand Prix racing and film festivals, to regattas and boat shows.
Emmanuel Akintunde founded boutique agency GF Entertainment in 2014 and since then has helped yacht owners and charter guests — including the likes of Prince Abdul Mateen of Brunei — bring A-list DJs, musicians and performers on board. Today, 60 percent of Emmanuel’s clients are yacht owners, and he’s helped them secure acts like Shaggy, David Blaine and Craig David for on board celebrations.
In an exclusive interview, PrestigeOnline asks Emmanuel, together with his Events & Marketing Director Rachael Hinton-Smith and Superyacht Entertainment Director David Smith, for expert tips on hosting the ultimate superyacht soiree to rule all yacht parties.
Emmanuel: “It completely depends on what the client wants. When we first started, we were strictly booking entertainment. As the years have gone by, we’re being asked to do the full A to Z of organising events. For a billionaire’s 70th birthday party on a superyacht in April 2024, we were engaged to all audio visual aspects, but we also dealt with staging, lighting and confetti canons, as well as sorting travel, accommodation and transport for the A-list entertainment. Our immediate team is five head of departments, but we can end up outsourcing and managing as many as 350 people to put on these events.
Rachael: “It’s so much more than just booking artists because we handle the entire logistics, needs and requirements of sometimes multiple A-listers at one time. And there are events where we really do everything including planning, tablescapes and the food and beverage.
Emmanuel: “In 2017, I was introduced to the superyacht world through work on the Cogs for Cancer afterparty. I now have a network of yacht captains who get requests from owners and charter guests that want Drake, Martin Garrix or David Guetta to perform on board. But the captains have no clue how to get these talents. The solution is, they come to us, and we simply make it happen.”
Rachael: “There’s something really beautiful about the exclusivity and privacy of a yacht that you don’t get on land. If you’re a high-profile person who is in the public eye, potentially dealing with privacy issues and paparazzi, a yacht is such a secure way to control every element.
Emmanuel: “And if you’re at anchor [in open water], you can make as much noise as you want. We’ve got one client with a multi-deck yacht who’s got a speaker and lighting system for his party that you would usually have in an arena tour.”
Rachael: “When booking an A-list DJ, they do come up with a very specific technical rider of what equipment they like to use. And they actually won’t perform unless you supply it. The sound must be a certain decibel reading — and that never is to the specifics of what is existing on a superyacht.
David: “When clients are building their superyachts, they do put in good sound systems and internal speakers. But for a party, it often isn’t enough. It’s simply not practical to have such a high level of speaker setup for those every now and then occasions. Firstly, because it’s quite a costly investment, but also, because space is paramount on a superyacht. So that’s when clients come to us. We bring in the heavyweights from brands like L-Acoustics, Meyer Sound, D&B Acoustic and Shure — tech we’ve had international DJs and artists of the highest level operating on — and then take them off the next day.”
David: “Certain yachts can only have 12 people on board at anchor, while other yachts have had over 200. The size of the guest list totally depends on the specific requirements of the vessel, as well as how the yacht is docked.”
Rachael: “When we organised an event on 96.6 metre superyacht Faith, there were so many tenders! To get everyone to arrive at the same time was a logistical nightmare. You need to be lenient with timings when hosting a party on board. It’s very tricky to organise people!”
Emmanuel: “For instances where businesses like Meta or Rosewood charter a yacht for a company event, they have to hire specialists to carpet the interiors of the yacht, just to protect the vessel from the sheer amount of footfall that happens.
Emmanuel: “On a yacht measuring between 60-90 metres, 80-100 guests is a good size. ”
Rachael: “The nice thing about superyachts is also that you’re outside, so you can have more people without feeling claustrophobic.”
Emmanuel: “It ranges from five figures to eight figures — which was the cost of the last event we did.”
Rachael: “When do you start planning a wedding? It’s the same principle for a party of this scale.
There’s also the contracts. The stakes are so high when you’re talking about multi-million dollar performance contracts, so that is not a two-week turnaround.
But now that we’ve worked with some of the major agents a few times, there is a beautiful level of trust that we have developed, which means a lot of these questions and clauses are dissolved much quicker. We also now know a lot of celebrities who, if they happen to be in town the weekend of a big event, might reach out to us to see if they can pick up some extra work as well.”
Emmanuel: “A big event like a milestone birthday can take 18 to 20 months to plan — but we’ve had clients who have given us as little as four months. We’ve also put together a fashion brand launch in just two weeks and there have been times when a client will ask to book in a week’s time. This is where having good relationships comes into play.”
David: “Our summer season is the busiest — from late May through to September. That’s not to say that we’re not busy over winter. St Barth’s for New Year’s Eve is always a very busy location for us with multiple events to manage.”
Emmanuel: “We worked with Prince Abdul Mateen of Brunei last year and organised for a band called The Brotherockers to perform for him on a private superyacht charter on Lake Como. The Prince loved the band so much, he actually tipped them more than their base fee and then engaged them immediately for a larger-scale private event that he hosted the year after, as part of his wedding celebrations.
David: “We had a band flying out to Croatia and we had to get a specific bass or cello — because the musician didn’t want to fly the fragile original in. But there was only one or two of them in the whole country. The client had no idea that we were in bits for days trying to find this particular instrument, but of course we did!
Rachael: “Another example was a private event where we had one of the biggest bands in the world performing, and the strings of the double bass broke. We had to call every store in the South of France to find these strings the day before the performance!”
David: “The point is, we don’t just book bands. We do everything and anything to execute the whole event seamlessly.”
Emmanuel: “It’s the little things that go a long way. Prepare gift bags for the talent. It’s nice to treat those who are essentially working for you.”
Rachael: “Experience is the most important thing. It’s really nice if hosts can give something to their guests that holds sentiment, like capturing content that can be viewed again later. I’m also very passionate about being in the moment, so I would suggest throwing a couple of polaroid cameras around to encourage people to get off their phones and appreciate the incredible experience!”
Emmanuel: “October is looking crazy, with four major events around the world within days of each other — in the UAE, the Maldives, the Mediterranean and Vegas.
And with the launch of our new office in Jeddah, we’ll be closer to Asia this year. We’re still doing events for the royal families and private individuals and venues, but at the same time we’re working with the Saudi government to facilitate bringing talent into the kingdom to increase tourism. In different facets, we’ll be working with projects like Neom, Red Sea Global, Qiddiya, and AlUla.”
(All images: Emmanuel Akintunde/ GF Entertainment/ Burgess)
Emmanuel Akintunde is the owner and founder of GF Entertainment.
Olivia is a freelance journalist from the UK whose work focuses on superyachts, luxury lifestyle and travel. A former senior digital writer at BOAT International media, her writing has also been published ..Read More
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