Party time: Cate Blanchett, Beth Ditto, Lily Allen and more light up glitzy Serpentine summer bash

The stars shone brightly last night at the Serpentine in London (and not just in the night sky) as the crème de la crème of the art/fashion/tech/showbiz worlds descended on the Kensington Gardens institution for its hugely popular invitation-only Summer Party.

“For the first time since the beginning of the event in 2000, just one artist will co-host the Summer Party: the world renowned Australian actor, producer and humanitarian Cate Blanchett,” said the Serpentine in advance.

The Oscar-winning star of Blue Jasmine was indeed guest of honour at the fundraising gala, which drew a phalanx of patrons, curators and collectors, who gathered around the bright orange Play Pavilion presented by the Lego Group—“is that the bar?” asked a guest—and a reimagined installation by the Indian artist Subodh Gupta (A Place in the Sun).

Heaps of other artists were in attendance including the sculptor Thomas J. Price whose effigy of a black woman in Times Square, New York, recently entered into the public consciousness. “Fox News did a hit job on the work and it went viral,” he said, remaining tight-lipped on where the work would be shown next. His next major commission will be unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney.

Fellow sculptor Antony Gormley, recently appointed Companion of Honour by the King, was seen conversing with Alvaro Barrington while Es Devlin revealed she’d just been on a cathartic retreat in the south of France (the prolific artist and designer also hinted that her installation Congregation—shown during Frieze last year at St Mary le Strand in London—will pop up somewhere else soon).

The grande dame of the London art scene, Grayson Perry, was also in fine form, relaying his recent experience on the ITV reality show The Masked Singer. “It was really fun. I started learning to sing about six years ago. I beat [acclaimed American singer-songwriter] Macy Gray.” Would he do any other (lo-brow) TV? “I’ve been asked to do both The Great British Bake Off and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!”

Other luminaries included the Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh who designed the summer pavilion in 2023. Ghotmeh—who recently bagged the architectural overhaul of the British Museum—sported the best outfit of the evening, a classy chiffon swirl emblazoned with verse from French poet Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal.

As the evening rolled on, more and more celebs filled the garden and galleries, with the Serpentine Pavilion, designed this year by the Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum (A Capsule in Time), doubling up as a top-notch dance floor. The evening also provided another opportunity to take in Giuseppe Penone’s verdant and vital show Thoughts in the Roots.

Rapper will.i.am, the Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning and the businesswoman Isha Ambani, chair of the Summer Party host committee, mingled on the lawns while the podcaster and pop star Lily Allen was seen tucking into a biryani. The American singer-songwriter Beth Ditto, resplendent in white foam, meanwhile embraced Serpentine supremo Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Summer Party Partners include Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ruinart and Gagosian, along with Google Arts & Culture whose Art Selfie 2 miraculously placed guests, including some of our own writers, in famous art scenes.

Among the other famous attendees on the night were the artists Anthea Hamilton, Yinka Shonibare CBE, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, as well as the sprinter Dina Asher-Smith and the actor Isla Fisher.