\n<\/p>\n
I<\/span>t\u2019s recognised for its pomp, the celebrity supporters and the fabulously glamorous locations, but for the man behind the amfAR gala, an A-list charity roadshow that rolled into London for the first time this weekend, the event is deeply personal.<\/p>\n AmfAR \u2013 the American Foundation for Aids Research \u2013 is a nonprofit group that emerged in the 1980s to support research into HIV and Aids.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an HIV-positive man. I\u2019m lucky to be alive because of organisations like amfAR,\u201d the foundation\u2019s incoming CEO, Kyle Clifford, said.<\/p>\n \u201cI had an Aids diagnosis, and nobody in my life knew that until recently, including my family. But I decided when I took on this role that I would come out about my diagnosis so that people who are HIV-positive know that the person leading the organisation is 100% committed. I live it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Joely Richardson hosts the amfAR London 2025 gala in London.<\/span> Photograph: Lia Toby\/Getty for amfAR<\/p>\n AmfAR galas are known as some of the most lavish parties on the international social calendar, bringing together celebrities and philanthropists to raise money for biomedical research. Figures like Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio are regulars in Cannes, while Richard Gere and Eva Longoria attended the Venice event.<\/p>\n Now, amfAR is bringing a slice of that glamour to the UK having hosted its inaugural London gala at the luxury Chancery Rosewood hotel on Friday to coincide with the arts fair Frieze and the BFI London film festival.<\/p>\n To mark the occasion, it honoured the artist Tracey Emin with a special award.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe London could 100% compete with Cannes and Venice,\u201d Clifford said. \u201cThe interest we\u2019ve received this week since being in town from different generations has been tremendous.<\/p>\n \u201cIt became obvious very quickly that honouring Dame Tracey Emin was the most authentic way of expressing London\u2019s DNA. Not only is she one of the most creative female contemporary artists, but she\u2019s also been a voice for the voiceless, and a supporter of [the fight against] HIV and Aids since the late 80s.\u201d<\/p>\n The London gala was hosted by the actor Joely Richardson, with musical performances from Grace Jones and Jess Glynne. This year, amfAR raised $17m (\u00a312.7m) at the Cannes gala, $3.4m in Venice and $3.1m in Dallas.<\/p>\n Clifford said: \u201cHIV is still a global health issue. At the moment, you have around 42 to 44 million people living in the world with HIV. Over 10 million of those do not have access to medication that can keep them alive. That\u2019s like the whole population of London.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Grace Jones performs on stage.<\/span> Photograph: Richard Young\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n He said the organisation had \u201cbig plans for growth\u201d in the capital. \u201cWe want to make amfAR the biggest event at Frieze, and hopefully the biggest event in the city. We\u2019re going to have over 300 people in the room for the inaugural event.\u201d<\/p>\n AmfAR was formed in 1985 by the actor Elizabeth Taylor and the research scientist Mathilde Krim, among others. \u201cThey realised there was an opportunity during major artistic events to bring everyone together for a good cause. I always say people come for the party and stay for the cause,\u201d Clifford said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in Palm Beach around March. Then we go to Cannes, then Venice, then Dallas, now we\u2019re in London, and we\u2019ll finish out the year in Vegas. We have raised nearly a billion dollars for our research programmes and awarded more than 3,800 grants to research teams worldwide. I believe London can bring us closer to a cure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s recognised for its pomp, the celebrity supporters and the fabulously glamorous locations, but for the man behind the amfAR gala, an A-list charity roadshow that rolled into London for the first time this weekend, the event is deeply personal. AmfAR \u2013 the American Foundation for Aids Research \u2013 is a nonprofit group that emerged<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[453,1976,1554,5058,956,3269,17134,13855,8996,1661,14349],"class_list":{"0":"post-28924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-aids","9":"tag-cannes","10":"tag-charity","11":"tag-compete","12":"tag-culture","13":"tag-debut","14":"tag-emin","15":"tag-gala","16":"tag-honours","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-tracey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}