The Journal
Events 9 min read November 2024

Event Weekends at the Towers

Four weekends a year, the estate becomes a different building — the terraces set for thousands, the Palladium running to midnight, and a logistics operation the guests are never meant to see.

There is a version of this hotel that exists only on four weekends a year. The furniture moves, the lighting plots change, the florists arrive at 4 am — and by the time the first guest walks in, the estate has quietly become a venue.

Race Week

Cup week is the pinnacle. The terraces take enclosures-style dressing, the salons run a private carnival of their own, and the seamstress on Level 2 hasn't slept properly since October. Bookings close by September; the same guests return annually and hold their tables like season tickets.

Grand Prix

Albert Park is eight minutes away by helicopter — the pad runs shuttle slots all weekend, and the garage-floor crowd that stays with us treats the towers as a paddock extension. The atrium bar pours until the race debriefs end.

New Year's Eve

The hardest ticket in the building: river-facing suites, the Palladium dinner, and the house boat holding mid-Yarra for the fireworks. The night sells out eleven months ahead — we announce the date the previous January and it moves within weeks.

An event weekend succeeds when the building disappears — when a thousand guests experience a party and never once notice the logistics.

How It Actually Works

  • Six weeks out: floor plans locked, menus tasted, run-sheets rehearsed.
  • Event week: overnight builds, vendor marshalling, the estate running two parallel hotels.
  • The morning after: the towers reset before breakfast — guests who slept through it never knew.

Want in? The events desk keeps the calendar and the waitlist. Private terraces and estate buyouts follow the same rhythm — earlier is always the right answer.

Daniel Okafor

Director of Events

Director of Events at Eucalyptus Stay; producer of two royal visits, three film premieres and approximately four hundred weddings.

Eucalyptus Stay

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