On Thursday 12 March 2015, the award winning Rosehill Gardens welcomed close to 1,400 guests to the NSW Premier’s Harmony Dinner, hosted in the superb Grand Pavilion. It was a spectacular evening of multicultural food, fashion and performance.  

Being the largest gala event of its kind that the venue has hosted, it was definitely a welcomed challenge. Rosehill Gardens is not unfamiliar with large scale events; in fact that is exactly what it is set up for, playing host to some of Sydney’s largest events including the Golden Slipper Carnival and the NSW Caravan, Camping and Holiday Supershow, attracting crowds of over 40,000 and 80,000 respectably.

While the Grand Pavilion is set up to accommodate large scale functions, an event of this size still required additional planning and resource. The event was originally planned for 800 people; however within the final weeks leading up to the night the numbers grew to close to 1,400 guests. Previous to this, the largest Gala Dinner held in this space was for 1,200 guests; therefore it was still somewhat unknown how well the number of guests could be accommodated. 

With two kitchens already on site, an additional kitchen was also bumped in to service the extensive catering requirements. Being a multicultural event, there was also an impact from a catering perspective, having a large amount of Halal and Kosher dietary requirements. A total of 17 Kosher meals were served on the night, with additional requests received just hours prior to service, whilst the remaining meals were all Halal certified.  A whopping 168 kilograms of Lamb Rump Tenderloin was served during the night, with 20 chefs all spending an enormous 30 hours on food preparation.

The Harmony Dinner was all about celebrating various cultures, involving a smoking ceremony and various multicultural performances throughout the night, presenting operational considerations.  Smoke detectors were required to be disabled for the smoking ceremony, in addition to a regular presentation stage at the front of the room, three satellite stages were bumped in around the room to accommodate the performances. Four large projection screens were also installed at the front of the room to ensure guests did not miss a single bit of the entertainment throughout the night.   

Being a multi function event space comes with its challenges. A large function was hosted in the Grand Pavilion the night prior to the Harmony Dinner; meaning bump in could only take place on the day of the event. Exceptional communication and planning was critical to ensure the success of this.

In addition, being the home of the famous Golden Slipper Carnival running over three Saturdays in March, Rosehill Gardens was in full preparation for the Carnival during this time. With Carnival bump in starting approximately one week out, any work surrounding the function space itself could not happen until after the Harmony Dinner, leaving only one day for bump in. This also meant the Harmony Dinner had to be bumped out the same night. All events over this time were successfully executed, highlighting the scale and flexibility of Rosehill Gardens as a multi function event space.

In summary flexibility, impeccable planning, and being well equip to handle large scale events, was the key to the success of the Premier’s Harmony Dinner. We look forward to hosting this again in 2016.  

Rosehill Gardens offers a wide selection of versatile indoor and outdoor areas which can be designed to meet any request. Offering award winning catering and a contemporary suite of spaces, Sydney’s prestigious racecourse has the ability to cater a diverse range of events from intimate meetings to large scale lifestyle exhibitions, product launches, corporate events and outdoor festivals.

Click here for more information about Events at Rosehill Gardens.

For all corporate and special event enquires contact:

Terri-Ann Mikulic
Group Business Development Manager
Australian Turf Club
Ph: (02) 9663 8518

Natalie Young
Business Development Manager - Corporate
Australian Turf Club
Ph: (02) 9663 8478