For those who could not make it: Saturday 9 November 2024 saw 19 phans make it to the inaugural Brisbane Phantom Phans’ Dinner (“BPPD”) at Malt Dining in Brisbane.
I had the pleasure of organising and coordinating this first BPPD. Let’s see how it went.
[Editors Note: For those who would like to listen or watch the speach by Shane Foley plus other shaniagians from the weekend, go and watch/listen to X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode #294.]
To start with, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to see the event run smoothly. The bigger the event, the more that goes into making sure it all runs smoothly. This makes the dinner in Sydney all the more impressive!
We were going to be all by ourselves in the Cellar at Malt Dining, but they were short-handed and we nearly reached the room capacity of 20. We ended up with a little more room upstairs, in the private half of the Attic dining area.
When people started arriving the atmosphere quickly became electric. There was a buzz in the air. It was exciting and this was clearly the place to be tonight!
It helped that many phans had the pleasure of Chris and Kim Hill’s generous hosting of breakfast at their home earlier that day – with tour of the Phantom room!
The evening was set up to be quite simple: A few short speeches, a guest speaker, some good food, and friends, both old and new. A winning combination, as it turns out.
Being November we paused for a moment to recall those no longer with us, particularly Lee Falk, Jim Shepherd, Richard Fry, Don Perlin, John Cassaday, Jose Maria Ortiz Tafalla, Dai Darell, Jose Delbo, and Walmir Amaral.
In future we intend to pause to remember especially those who have died in the time since the previous dinner.
Dinner was a most wonderful combination of foods that I don’t think anyone who attended would have put together or even would have guessed worked together. We don’t have any photos of the food, that’s how good it was! You could try to imagine from the menu. All I’ll say is it was delicious, delectable, and delightful!
What you may notice from the art for the evening is that it is all from the hand of Shane Foley, with the coaster and serviette art courtesy of the collection of Terry Krahe. You may also notice that we had the company of Shane Foley who graciously agreed to a question and answer format discussion.
As you can see from the photo, we had some fun with that. The discussion was recorded and can be found on the Chronicle Chamber website.
We discussed some of Shane’s stories, art style, approach to first drafts, and even some of what’s to come. Shane also shared some of the techniques to develop a story, which can be as simple as answering a question you have when reading a story.
There’s certainly something different about the experience when on the organising side of things. I thought it was a big night, but that might just be me. I certainly had a great time.
While I said I was the organiser-coordinator, it was still very much a team effort with thanks due to so many people, most of whom I think I thanked by name on the night. If I missed anyone, I am terribly sorry and I genuinely am very grateful for your help.
I had the opportunity to meet a handful of people who were at the dinner in Sydney but I just didn’t get a chance to chat with. I also had the good fortune of meeting Queensland phans who didn’t make it to the Sydney dinner this year.
It’s the people who make up this community – the ones like Bradley Peach who welcomed me into this community and encouraged me to go to my first Phantom dinner in Sydney.
At the end of the night no one was in a rush to leave. The food stopped coming and everyone kept talking. The staff started packing up and cleaning tables… and everyone kept talking!
I think that was a success. I think we should do that again!
What an incredible journey – from the opening night of the exhibit in Bundaberg to organising a dinner less than a year later. What an amazing bunch of people in this community!
NB If you would like to join us next time, feel free to contact Chronicle Chamber and ask that your details be put on the BPPD mailing list. They can pass your details on to me.
[Editors Note: If you are attending any event with any Phantom related guests or having a catch up and you want to let us know about it, please contact us at ChronicleChamber@gmail.com. We love to see phans getting together and enjoying the Phantom together.]
