Monaco’s Princely Family gathered at the Salle des Étoiles at Sporting Monte-Carlo on Saturday 21st March for the 70th edition of the Bal de la Rose — one of the Principality’s most established charity events — for a night that balanced tradition with spectacle in equal, and sometimes surprising, measure.
Presided over by Princess Caroline of Hanover, the evening raised funds for the Princess Grace Foundation in its habitual setting of black tie glamour, extraordinary entertainment and Monaco’s most recognisable faces. Prince Albert II and Princess Charlène attended alongside Princess Caroline, Pierre Casiraghi and Beatrice Borromeo, Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Ben-Sylvester Strautmann, and Princess Akiko of Mikasa — the Japanese princess who had opened Japan Day in Monaco that same morning. Among the guests was Charles Leclerc, attending with his wife Alexandra.
The galaxy arrives at Sporting Monte-Carlo
For its landmark 70th edition, Princess Caroline chose the theme ‘Galaxy Rose Ball’, once again giving her friend Christian Louboutin carte blanche over the artistic direction. The Sporting Monte-Carlo was transformed into an immersive, space-inspired universe — portholes that changed colour according to the planets being explored during the evening, laser shows, and scenography of a scale and ambition that ran through every detail of the night. It was theatrical without apology, and the galaxy theme held from the moment guests arrived until the early hours.
An evening of deliberate contrasts
The entertainment, however, was where the evening made its most unexpected choices — and delivered its most memorable moments.
It opened with masked violinists in elaborate 18th century orchestral dress, all powdered wigs and period precision, before pivoting — quite dramatically — to the Crazy Horse, the famous Parisian cabaret whose barely-dressed performers brought a level of sensuality that raised an eyebrow or two in a room steeped in seven decades of refined tradition. It was risqué, deliberate and undeniably effective.
What followed was no less theatrical. Ballet Kalinka took to the stage with dancers in sweeping black cloaks carrying giant silver discs on their heads — an image somewhere between avant-garde choreography and The Handmaid’s Tale. Berlin-based Dulce Compania then brought stilt performers dressed as towering metallic figures, part alien, part sculpture, crossing the stage with an otherworldly presence entirely in keeping with the galaxy theme.
Then came the UFO – and from it emerged auctioneer Simon de Pury, who descended on to the stage to conduct the charity auction in support of the Princess Grace Foundation.
The second half of the evening shifted tone once more. Choreographers Céline and Cain Kitsaïs filled the stage with dancers split between black and white, before a galactic light show brought the formal programme to its close. Then Leee John took to the stage with his band Imagination, filling the room with the soul and funk sounds of the 1980s — and the dance floor filled almost immediately. DJ Josh Quinton kept it going until the early hours.
Seven decades and still going
Established in 1954 and supporting the Princess Grace Foundation since 1964, the Rose Ball has outlasted trends, political upheavals and changing tastes to remain one of Monaco’s most recognisable occasions. Its 70th edition was proof that longevity and reinvention are not mutually exclusive — that a night can carry the weight of decades of tradition while still managing to surprise the room.
Tickets for the evening were priced at €1,800 per person.
Click on the gallery below for images from the 2026 Rose Ball. All photo courtesy of Monte-Carlo SBM
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