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Celebrating Macau’s Best

The newly-formed Macau Social Club is looking to make the most of the city's venues and talent during these challenging times
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In August, a gathering of around 100 guests enjoyed an evening of delicious Portuguese food, free flowing Champagne and an eclectic program of live entertainment at the inaugural Macau Social Club event. The club itself is a very new and still loosely organised association of friends, who have been inspired by the unusual events of this year to try to make the most of the limited travel and entertainment options by creating events to promote all local talent, attractions and venues.

“The original idea came from a conversation between a group of friends,” explains Rui Pinto Proenca, one of the founders of the club. “Basically, we realised we were going to be stuck in Macau for a long period of time, and the offer of culture and entertainment had diminished considerably. So instead of just waiting for something to happen, we thought, let’s put something together.”

The Macau Social Club’s first event was held at Albergue 1601 on August 15, with a ‘Macau in the 60’s’ dress code theme. And to their surprise, all the tickets sold out very quickly.

“I think the event was a huge success,” comments Eddie McDougall, another of the founders of the club. “There was lots of entertainment provided: performers from Aerial Arts Macau doing silks, a beautiful Chinese lady painted with bird feathers in a bird cage greeting people when they arrived, a real mahjong parlour, salsa dancers, and the five-piece Bela Vista band. All the performers really engaged with the audience and The Albergue 1601 guys did an exceptional job creating food with a lot of theatre around it.”

Both Rui and Eddie stress that the Club is not primarily about networking, although that is likely to be a side benefit of course.

“We are not like a chamber of commerce,” say Rui. “We are just about bringing people of different backgrounds together and celebrating the best of Macau in terms of talent and places.”

“And we are not aimed at tourists,” adds Eddie. “This is for locals of any background or nationality, like-minded in the way that they live here and wanting to make the most of Macau and celebrate it. Macau is an amazing place with talented people. It’s about how can we celebrate the uniqueness of Macau in these times, and giving local communities, artisans, artists and entertainers a platform to perform and showcase their wares.”

With their first event successfully completed, the club is now planning its calendar for the rest of the year, with the goal of holding events every four to six weeks.

“We have plans and a whole list of possible events, both smaller and bigger programs,” says Eddie.

“Different venues and different concepts,” adds Rui. “One idea is to do some masterclasses and screenings of local movies, always with social mingling opportunities and staying very Macau-focused.”

Rui is a partner of a local law firm and Eddie an importer of wines, and both have been living in Macau with their families for a number of years. And despite their enthusiasm to plan future activities and events, for now they are keeping the club fairly loosely organised, with no formal roles, official membership or fees, and largely covering expenses out of their own pockets.

“A lot of associations in Macau start before there is a strong base and then don’t last. We want to see how things go, and become more established before we commit to formalising an association,” notes Rui.

“Some social clubs have a brick and mortar club-house, but our clubhouse is the entire city,” adds Eddie. “We are like the Uber of social clubs – we will go anywhere to celebrate, and we’re not focusing on the integrated resorts for now. We want to explore places that people don’t usually go.”

The motivation for starting the Macau Social Club came from the current COVID-19 situation, but both gentlemen hope the club will be able to grow and expand once things improve too. Ultimately, they are just trying to make the best of a bad situation.

“COVID has forced all communities to look a bit closer at themselves. We shouldn’t assume that the further away you go, the better things will be. We need to support local businesses and talent,” says Eddie.

“These are strange times, but also times for people to reinvent themselves. I think we will eventually get through these times and be able to get together without so many constraints in the future,” notes Rui. “And if there’s a silver lining to this situation, it’s that we are rediscovering and enjoying Macau just for ourselves.”

 

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