SPL EVENTS
Sip a cocktail, settle into a sofa and mingle with
the sophisticates under the swaying palms
22 StPeteLifeMag.com November/December 2018
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY RAINER SHEERER
If you’re going to throw a party, Rainer Scheer believes, make it
big and make it memorable.
Scheer is the creator of Chillounge Night, an upscale moveable
feast of cool, illuminated lounge furniture, mood lighting, food,
drink, entertainment and more. Scheer’s outdoor, nighttime
concept is celebrating 10 years in 2018, and in keeping with his
not throwing himself a self-congratulatory bash.
Instead, come November 17, he’ll transform St. Pete’s North
Straub Park into the chilling-est, lounging-est after-dark party
of the season.
“Illumination” will be the 47th event in the history of Chillounge
Night; Scheer estimates more than 120,000 people have
attended his parties, all over Florida, and more than $125,000
has been raised for local charities. St. Pete’s Creative Clay is the
“I love what I do – if not, I wouldn’t do this for 10 years,” the
native of Wiesbaden, Germany explains. “I love when everything
comes together in the evening and all these people come –
nice people, they dress nice and they just want to have a nice
evening.”
Scheer, who’s based in Manatee County, says that Straub Park
is his favorite location for staging a Chillounge Night (this will
be his 11th visit to the waterfront greenspace). “We come in the
morning. It looks amazing at night, and the next morning at 4
o’clock, the park looks like it did before anything happened.”
For seven years, he operated an art gallery, selling imported
Italian frescos, in downtown Sarasota. “I wanted to come
up with something special to bring people to the downtown
area – a nice upscale event,” he says. “And the galleries and
restaurants would be happy and proud.”
There was another reason. “I wasn’t making money with the
gallery. I told myself ‘Either you come up with something or you
go back to Germany.’”
Scheer says he brainstormed the Chillounge Night concept - “an
outdoor event with food, music, all kind of upscale elements,
weekend. From Indonesia, he bought hundreds of pieces of
furniture and cushions came later (and he’s still buying more).
And that’s only a small percentage of his inventory.
all my lounge furniture,” Scheer says with a mischievous grin.
“That’s a lot of furniture.”
BY BILL DEYOUNG
/StPeteLifeMag.com