New York is about to host one of the most exclusive nights of the international summer, and the man behind it is Maxim Berin. On July 16 his Big Art Festival returns to the city for a second year running, this time in partnership with FIFA, for a black tie gala dinner that gathers football legends, business leaders, investors, and luxury world figures under one roof.
The choice of date is no accident. The evening lands just days before the World Cup Final, catching the city at the height of its football fever and turning a private dinner into a magnet for the sport's most influential names.
A landmark setting
The gala will be held at Capitale in Lower Manhattan, a Beaux-Arts landmark built in 1893 as the Bowery Savings Bank and designed by the celebrated architect Stanford White. With its soaring ceilings, towering Corinthian columns, and marble detailing, the building offers the kind of grandeur that has become a signature of Berin's events.
Ilya Zavolun, who runs Capitale, said the venue was made for exactly this sort of occasion and welcomed the chance to host a night that brings together the worlds of sport, business, and culture in one of the city's most iconic spaces.
A headline act and a curated program
The evening's marquee name is 50 Cent, the rapper, producer, and entrepreneur whose more than 30 million records sold have made him one of the defining figures of modern popular culture. His performance is billed as one of the night's highlights.
Around him sits a carefully built program. The vocalist Carolina Rial and the saxophonist Max Merseny will supply the live music, moving the night from elegant jazz early on to a late celebration, while the media personality Emily Austin takes the role of host. The sports streaming platform DAZN joins as a partner, and Chopard, the festival's official jewelry partner, will stage a presentation of its latest high jewelry collection.
The man building a luxury platform
For Berin, the founder of Big Art Festival and the company Berin Iglesias Art, the New York edition is another step in a fast growing venture. Over the past five years the festival has turned from a single event into an international platform that stages luxury evenings in landmark destinations, pairing global brands and well known artists with an audience of investors, executives, and cultural figures.
Berin frames the project as being less about the party and more about the connections it creates. In his telling, New York is a natural home for that ambition, a place where influence and opportunity meet, and the evenings he stages are meant to bring together people who shape industries and leave a mark.
Where the deal room meets the dance floor
What makes the format work as a business, rather than simply a celebrity dinner, is the crowd it draws. Football legends and FIFA representatives share the room with club owners, entrepreneurs, and luxury brand executives, turning an evening of entertainment into a high value networking event wrapped in black tie.
Held under the banner Where Legends Meet, the New York gala is a bet that the intersection of sport, money, and culture is one of the most valuable rooms in the world to be in. On July 16, Maxim Berin is aiming to prove it again.