Annika Urm is the owner and director of the online magazine i-Marbella.com and has been covered and attended numerous events in Marbella during the summer season 2014. And now she will share with you some of the most remarkable moments from her point of view.

Marbella Summer 2014 has been amazing to me and to Marbella. The summer for me started with Marbella Luxury Weekend, and according to Jose Luiz Hernandez, it was successful as well: During the weekend there was 55.000 visitors in Puerto Banus, surpassing the figure of last year by 5.000. The average hotel occupancy during the weekend has been 82%, confirming the predictions that were made from the municipal delegation of Tourism.  

I think that the hottest thing during the Marbella Luxury Weekend was the floating catwalk and all the famous designers Fashion Shows like Custo Barcelona, Andres Sarda and many others. Luxury Car Pagani had a stand where i-Marbella had the privilege to make an exclusive interview with the creator of Pagani cars - Horacio Pagani. MLW made many other celebrities, models like Mar Flores or football players like Júlio Baptista come to Marbella and this  was all covered by both national and international press.

Tene Sommer, Horacio Pagani, Annika Urm

Floating Catwalk at Puerto Banus

Marbella’s best ambassadors are of course Antonio Banderas ja Eva Longoria.  Eva Longoria Global Gift Gala in Gran Melia Don Pepe in August brought to so many celebrities and press to Marbella.

Eva Longoria Globalgift Gala

Surprisingly, Antonio Banderas seemed to be in a quite good mood even though he recently divorced, or maybe he was acting! Anyway he was spotted dancing at the Fashion show stage with Spanish designers in the Starlite festival and this is quite a good sign to see he is over Melanie. Thanks to Antonio Banderas we also had the great honor to see personally some of the biggest Hollywood stars, who usually do not travel here - Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Sylvester Stallone, Kellan Lutz, Avi Lerner and Jason Statham from The Expendables 3 movie were all in Marbella! Thank you Antonio Banderas!

Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Sylvester Stallone, Kellan Lutz, Avi Lerner and Jason Statham! The Expendables 3!

There is more charity galas in Marbella that I can account - Children with Cancer UK, Rotary Gala, Concordia Gala, World Vision Gala.  People really like to go and dress up for a fancy dinner or for a concert and here they also like to help other people in need.

Rotary Club Marbella Summer Gala

But also galas have to keep up with competitions! After Eva Longoria’s Global Gift Gala and Antonio Banderas’ Starlite Gala, the new star in the gala world definitely is WORLD VISION Gala, hosted by Daniel Shamoon at the five star Puente Romano Beach Resort.

World Vision Gala at Puente Romano

This gala was one of the most beautiful one I have event been to. I felt more like a wedding and it was like a private concert of Boney M and Gipsy King hosted at the beautiful seaside restaurant Sea Grill. And besides the great entertainment, also the food was one of the best I have eaten in a gala dinner. And in the end of the party people were all dancing on the stage and next to their tables - amazing!

World Vision Gala with Boney M

Marbella also welcomed the living flamenco legend- Joaquin Cortes who gave a spectacular show at the legendary Puente Romano tennis court. His dancers around him was all from a masterclass. And dressed by Armani. We had also all kinds of DJs in Marbella this summer, including Tiesto and Paris Hilton, Snoop dogg, Chris Brown, Disclosure, Wally Lopez etc.  

This summer favorite place to be for me was Plaza Village. This is brand new chill out courtyard next to Suite in Puente Romano is surrounded by beautiful restaurants and it always has people and every night live flamenco chill out music, what else could you ask for? I am happy to see how Sala Group is doing good. The photos of La Sala, La Sala by the Sea,  El Rincon de La Sala and Aqwa Mist on i-marbella are a proof of this, and of course these venues are full booked all the time.

Also I am happy to welcome back Guey Restaurant & Skybar - they have amazing food and it is just such a beautiful venue to wine or dine or meet your friends!

We all know that Sisu Boutique is cool and has affordable prices for partying ( also excellent food with good prices) , and they have a magnificent rooftop where besides partying you can also have very romantic dinners! What surprised me this summer was to see that Sleek was back. Welcome!

The best cocktails you will find at Freudenhaus in Puerto Banus. You really need to try them!!

And of course the private parties are the ones that made this summer special to me. Derek and Geroffy Villa Moana was the best. Thank you!

You can see lots of videos from the summer events in Marbella from our YouTube channel:

www.youtube.com/channel/UCohNivAVxjkROQrDo1jFw2A

Marbella is doing good! MARBELLA IS HAPPY!