It was without doubt the best +Friday so far, with more showrooms than ever opening their doors a day early to spend some quality time with visitors and get the festivities started.

A number of showrooms were open throughout the day – including Arthur G and Bathe’s exciting new showroom spaces and Signorino Tiles with one-on-one opportunities to chat with international guests.

Things got into full swing at lunchtime, when Insitu held their VIP lunch to launch their new products, including the Granny lamp (with some amazing food from Ed Dixon Food Design), while across town on Flinders Lane Burgtec, CSM and Macquarie Textiles welcomed Christian Seiffert of Waldmann to present Ataro and Tycoon Lighting.

At 1:30 Bayliss and RC&D had the floor covered with launches of their latest products and a fine spread of food – from Sushi at Bayliss to antipasto and bubbles at RC&D. In Fitzroy, Tait and ISM Objects served refreshments and gave a sneak peek of their latest furniture and lighting ranges.

The party really started after 3pm, when Argent/SICIS, Chapter House and 57 South (including ECF, Hettich, Victoria+Albert and the DQ Design Collective) invited visitors to peruse their products while enjoying wine, cocktails, great food and good conversation.

The afternoon saw some more exciting launches, including Eurowalls’ gala event, with their entry into The Project proving an early winner, while AWM, Designer Furniture Collection, Dexion Office and Volker Haug gave a VIP product preview ahead of Saturday.

Mance opened their doors to students on Friday evening, offering guidance and mentoring sessions on their processes and designs. Nearby, Bene/Envoy and Leffler Naturally Leather held their own VIP drinks to preview their new ranges and upstairs, How We Create inspired us all with their installation and website launch. The party was pumping from 6pm when Chairbiz opened the Campari Cocktail bar and DJ Simon Digby got the beat on track.

Maxton Fox was glowing green, with balloons, Astroturf and mini-golf pulling the punters in to check out their Beta system.

Back on Flinders InterfaceFLOR launched their entry into The Project with 10 top designers, and put on a real party to celebrate in the showroom surrounds of fashion label Zambesi. Just a few doors down and Zenith and Bolon wowed the crowds with their launches of the ’Be’ chair and ’Botanic’ collection respectively. While Thonet had their classic and new designs on show in their intimate showroom space up the stairs.

The parties swung on into the cool Melbourne night, but we’re guessing it wasn’t too late a night, for Saturday was yet to come…

Photos by John Doughty, Spy Photography and Morgan Coyle, Indesign