9 of the most epic hosting moments in history 

In his efforts to wed Queen Elizabeth I and become the most powerful man in Tudor England, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, turned his hand to hosting. But this wasn’t any ordinary display of hospitality; what followed was three weeks of revelry with music, dancing, hunting, drinking, opulent banquets and firework displays at Kenilworth Castle.

A 1578 manuscript details Dudley’s dedication to his quest with an inventory of the hundreds of monogrammed furnishings, lavish decor and paintings he commissioned for the event. And after all that? She still said no. 

The Titanic was the last word in luxury, even by today’s standards; first-class passengers were treated to the finest extravagancies at every hour of the day, but none more so than in its many dining rooms.

Before the ship met its tragic fate on 15th April 1912, passengers sat down to their last meal, a sumptuous 10-course menu consisting of caviar, oysters, poached salmon, filet mignon, foie gras and more, all washed down with copious amounts of champagne and accompanied by a string orchestra. 

Fiction they may be, but the mere mention of one of Gatsby’s raging parties invokes a defining image of decadence, exuberance and luxury in the Roaring Twenties.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed novel conjures Jay Gatsby’s sprawling mansion filled with jubilant merrymakers from all over New York, endless champagne, flapper girls, energetic jazz ensembles and the enigmatic host to create a bacchanalian description of hedonistic excess. What we’d give to attend one…

We don’t think the dictionary has a word to describe the unbelievable extravagance of the celebration Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi hosted for the 2,500th anniversary of this country in 1971.

French architects and interior designers spent over a year designing a city of tent suites to accommodate royalty and leaders from across the globe amidst the ancient ruins of Persepolis.

18 tonnes of food, 4,500 bottles of wine and champagne, and 50,000 European songbirds were just a few things flown in for the occasion, while a 1000km motorway, an entire airfield, an 18-hole golf course, and countless other amenities were also constructed in the middle of the desert, making it, understandably, the most expensive party ever recorded. Now that’s what we’d call a host with the most.