About 150 guests, in ball gowns, formal wear and more casual attire, turned out for this year's $85-per-ticket event. It opened with cocktails in the courtyard beside Victoria Hall. Dinner was then served in the hall's main auditorium by Bon Appétit Catering.

Each table also had a bottle of white and red wine and a cash bar was open. Atlas Taxi provided rides towards the close of the evening for those opting not to drive home.

"People were raving about how good the food was tonight," said Rosalind Davis of Lorraine Avenue, who headed up the organizing committee.

The evening, Davis said, was also about cutting loose and having fun.

"We get to use this beautiful room for dancing, which is what it was made for. It's a lot of fun to have everybody from the community come in and have a good time."

Dance music for all tastes, from classical to rock'n'roll, was played by Festival Joseph Segreti, a band with just the right amount of raunch so the evening would never be dull. Many otherwise staid Westmounters let down their hair and boogied late into the night.

City Councillor Nicole Forbes, who chairs the Community Events Advisory Committee, noted that this year the organizers wanted to try something different. "It's a new format," she said, pointing out that the band and caterer were new.

Upper Roslyn Avenue resident Helen Campbell, a new member of the organizing committee, was responsible for renting dishes, cutlery and other equipment. "It was a lot of work but a lot of fun," she said.

Former mayor Peter Trent, who was seated at a table with his wife, Kathryn Stephenson, Mayor Karin Marks and her husband, Brian Puddington, accepted an invitation to dance from Councillor Cynthia Lulham.

Marks said she was pleased to see a younger generation of Westmounters turn out. "I'm so excited to see so many young families and young people," she said. "It think it's great."

Seated at another table was de Maisonneuve Boulevard resident Stanley Baker and his guest, Montreal political activist Désirée McGraw — who is currently giving presentations in Montreal of former U.S. vice-president Al Gore's documentary on global warming, 'An Inconvenient Truth'.