600 People, One London Heatwave
What It Took to Deliver Private Events for 600 Guests in two days during a London Heatwave:
Last week, Racketeer hosted two of our biggest events to date: back-to-back, 300+ person experiences for England Rugby and Pretty Little Thing.
On the surface, guests saw Michelin-quality food, packed courts, cold drinks and a buzzing atmosphere. Behind the scenes, our team was battling one of the hottest weeks of the year, with temperatures inside our extremely well ventilated club still 30°C.
These events set the standard for what Racketeer events should look like going forward.
For these first flagship events, our co-founder Patrick deliberately stayed deep in the operation. After more than 20 years in hospitality he had the unique ability to show our team what excellence looks like in every area: each guest interaction, every plate of food, every court transition and every guest touchpoint was an opportunity to teach. The expectation is that, over time, the team will have learned what great looks like over time and be able run with Patrick's fantastic example.
Alongside him was Matt, our Head of Events, who was responsible for the entire run of show. Keeping 300 guests moving smoothly through tournaments, food service and hospitality requires hundreds of moving parts, and Matt ensured everything stayed on track.
On the floor, Rob, our Senior Operations Director, led the service teams, making sure every guest experienced the level of service Racketeer is becoming known for. His day actually started at 3am, cleaning every pane of glass in the venue before guests arrived, because details matter.
In the kitchen, Kirri, our Head Chef, faced the challenge of producing Michelin-quality food for hundreds of people in extreme heat. He was up at 3am both mornings preparing the kitchen and, with so little time between events, stayed overnight to make sure everything was ready for day two.
Lastly - MCing and organizing a tournament of this scale, twice in one day, on 11+ courts is no joke. Our head of padel George Weller rose to the occasion and smashed it.
My favorite part of the story: to make the venue as comfortable as possible, we left the warehouse doors open throughout the night to cool the building ahead of guest arrival. We hired additional overnight security to do so safely, but Rob and Kirri still chose to sleep on the sofas in the warehouse bar area so they could keep watch and be ready to start before sunrise.
Guests will remember the great food, the competition and the atmosphere. We'll remember the commitment behind it.
These two events weren't successful because of one person—they were successful because an entire team cared enough to go above and beyond for each other and for our clients. That's the culture we're building at Racketeer - setting the standard that every private padel event will be measured against from here.
Gone are the days of a few pizzas and showing people their courts. In are those of elite padel private eventing
