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Top 10 moments from 2017 Australian drinks Awards

Top 10 moments from 2017 Australian drinks Awards

We hope you had as much fun as we did at the fifth annual Australian drinks Awards.

The drinks industry gathered at the ICC Sydney on September 7 for a theatre-style presentation of the awards hosted by MC Michael Walton, followed by a gala dinner.

In a night filled with memorable moments, here are just a few of our favourites … 

1. Watching everyone making their entrance to the Awards via a red carpet with the gorgeous Sydney city skyline as a backdrop.

2. Walking into the Grand Ballroom at the ICC Sydney and seeing the amazing “Celebrating Excellence” theme for the first time. 

3. Host Michael Walton’s video revealing everyone who worked behind the scenes on organising the Awards had changed their name to “Sandra”: “Everyone in this entire production office is called Sandra we found it was a much easier way of getting things done by just having everyone being able to start an email saying ‘Sandra said’ or ‘Sandra thinks’. Nobody puts up a fight any more, it just gets things done so much quicker.” 

4. The Heineken crew taking a selfie on stage to celebrate their first AdA win.

5. The Jack Daniel’s team descending on the podium en masse to accept Brand of the Year. (And having a laugh as they had their official photo taken afterwards, see main pic.) Oh, and Natalia Kowalczyk’s acceptance speech: “This is just so freaking amazing.”

6. Asahi’s Michael Ritoli announcing on stage that he would be sharing a beer – or wine – afterwards with fellow winner of Supplier of the Year Mark Churi.

7. Women in drinks Chair Jennifer Collins (pictured with Lucy Nandi) and councillor Sally Byrne wearing ‘Save The Box’ T-shirts to the Awards and raising more than $10,000 for the charity from donations on the night.

8. The spoof video of the board agonising over the new theme for the Awards, including Sandra pushing for a Bollywood theme (with live elephants) …

David Halliday also reappeared in his famous leotard and pink leg warmers from the 2016 spoof video, saying he’d been practicing his Flashdance routine and was ready to perform …

Plus Shane Richardson made an appearance shirtless.

9. Michael East advising Sandra Przibilla to tell people to “sod off” if they tried to lure her back into the drinks industry while she was enjoying her retirement.

  

10. Dancers twirling their way through the ballroom to signal the after-party, sponsored by StayinFront, was about to begin. 

Watch a video from the night below:

 

 

 

 


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