Cocktails

As a way to introduce consumers to its newest apparel partnership, Sears built a campsite in New York’s Times Square on Thursday. To get people to explore the entire promotion for its new line of Outdoor Life apparel, the organizers devised a trivia game tour, which, when completed, allowed visitors to spin a wheel for prizes.

The Chicago Gourmet food festival, a prestigious event with celebrity chef cooking demonstrations, book signings, and plenty of food and drink samples, took over Millennium Park September 29 and 30. Event Creative designed several lush, atmospheric tents, including one for the presenting sponsor Bon Appétit. The setting had vintage farm windows hanging from the ceiling, stained wood tables with custom acrylic insets, a autumnal color palette, and tabletop landscapes holding fresh ivy, fountain grass, ferns, and broom corn.

The Washington Ballet hosted a Dracula-inspired gala on October 5 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. During the V.I.P. reception, bartenders served the night's specialty cocktail, a spooky-looking Black Velvet, made with Guinness and sparkling wine and garnished with black liquorice.

To herald its latest vodka flavor, Absolut Tune, Absolut threw two simultaneous parties at the Standard New York’s Le Bain and Top of the Standard nightclubs on Tuesday. With separate hosts—Solange Knowles and Charlotte Ronson—for each, the events had distinctly different looks, including a pool filled with disco balls (pictured) in one venue and a giant deco-inspired rice-paper art stage in the other.

The Taste of D.C. kicked off the 10-block food fest on October 6. At the three-day event, the U.S.D.A. brought its Food Safety Discovery Zone truck where representatives hosted interactive, kiddie-focused 15-minute shows going through the four categories of food safety: clean, separate, cook, chill.

To celebrate the finale of its first shoppable short film, titled Falling for You, Target hosted a private screening and party at New York’s Terminal 5. David Stark designed the affair, with nods to cinemas and movies throughout, including a concession-style snack bar that doled out popcorn and boxes of candy.

About 4,000 guests took to Will Rogers State Historic Park for the third annual Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on Saturday, with co-hosts like Rachel Zoe and Nacho Figueras. Producer BrownHot partnered with Mille Fiori Floral Design to create an eight- by 20-foot paper flower backdrop for the V.I.P. tent bar. Each flower was hand made and comprised of custom-printed stock, crepe paper, and tissue paper.

Boston nonprofit Team Impact hosted its first “Game Day” gala at the Westin Boston Waterfront on October 4. The tailgate-inspired decor had college-style pennants, fresh grass evocative of a football field, and roses in an autumnal orange.

L.A.'s Promise hosted its annual gala, "Night of Magic," at Nokia on Tuesday, with a magic show produced by David Copperfield. Chad Hudson Events produced and designed the event, which included a photo booth complete with a Copperfield-style illusion. Hudson's team printed old magic posters, wheat pasted to corrugated metal sheets, and then distressed them for an evocative look. A light wall bar back used industrial lights mounted on a black wooden frame.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago kicked off its 58th season with a performance of Richard Strauss’s Elektra on October 6. In the lobby, a buffet table decorated by Heffernan Morgan Ronsley evoked the tragically dramatic setting of the opera, which takes place in a crumbling, murder-plagued palace. Blood-red linens ran down the center of the table, while crashed chandeliers and tilted palatial columns added to the purposely chaotic look.