Call this 60th bash ‘scaled back’, Barack?
THANKS to Covid it was meant to be intimate and ‘scaled back’ – but Barack Obama’s 60th birthday bash appears to have been anything but.
The original guest list of 475 was said to have been cut down to just ‘family and close friends’ last week amid a backlash over surging US infection rates.
But leaked pictures showed a crowd of A-listers at whisky stations, a free bar and an extravagant buffet as the ex-president partied in a floral shirt.
The star-studded guest list is thought to have included George Clooney, rapper Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce, along with actors Tom Hanks and Bradley Cooper.
There were performances by music stars Alicia Keys and John Legend at the party on Saturday. US singer Erykah Badu, who also performed, posted a video of Mr Obama on the dancefloor holding a microphone, but swiftly deleted the post, as did several other guests and acts who broke the event’s photography ban.
The former president turned 60 last Wednesday and threw the lavish do in a marquee at his £9million, 29-acre seafront estate on Martha’s Vineyard, an exclusive island off Massachusetts.
Mr Obama’s spokesman, Hannah Hankins, had said: ‘Due to the new spread of the Delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends.’
Guests had been asked to ensure they were vaccinated, but one Republican branded it ‘hypocrisy at its finest’ as the unmasked crowd mingled with no sign of social distancing.
Even with a smaller guest list, the party was said to have caused traffic jams on the island.
Singer H.E.R., real name Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, put an image of herself with the president and his wife on Instagram and Twitter, but it was removed several hours later.
Another performer, rapper Trap Beckham, took pictures of the party showing napkins printed with ‘44x60’, referring to the 44th president’s milestone.
But he later posted: ‘Had to delete everything due to the rules. It was epic for sure.
‘If any videos surface, it’s goin viral. He danced the whole time. Nobody ever seen Obama like this before.’
Pictures also emerged of what appeared to be close friends and family eating brunch yesterday in a tent by a lagoon.