2025 Masked Ball of Versailles: this year’s most extravagant night brought together 2,500 of my closest friends at France’s most iconic palace. Here’s what you might have missed.
Most days, Versailles is a museum. Beautiful, yes. Majestic, of course. Elegant, certainly. But also quiet, curated and frozen in time. You admire it from a distance.
Then once a year, the spell breaks.
The gates open not just for tourists, but for everyone. After the sun sets, you’ll start to hear the bass lines thump like a beating heart. The palace transforms into a living stage for the most decadent and surreal celebration in all of France: the Grand Masked Ball of Versailles.
If you weren’t there in 2025, you didn’t just miss a party. You missed a portal.
I was there this year with 2,500 of my closest friends, in baroque costumes and masks as we danced until dawn. Move over Great Gatsby.
If you weren’t there, I want to give you a glimpse of what you missed. There is no experience in the world quite like it.
Let me take you back.
The Anticipation: Months Leading up to the 2025 Versailles Ball
No one comes to the Masked Ball of Versailles by accident. You don’t just stumble in on a whim. You plan, you prepare, you obsess. Months in advance, people (like Juan) are sketching costume ideas, researching embroidery styles, booking rental fittings, hunting for antique lace or the longest ostrich feathers they can get their hands on. Every detail is deliberate.
Why? Because everyone who attends wants to be there—not just to witness the spectacle, but to become part of it. The effort is a kind of devotion. Dressing for this night is like stepping into a role you’ve been waiting your whole life to play. And when the palace doors open, that effort doesn’t go unnoticed. It makes the night feel sacred. Earned. Beautiful.
This year’s theme—”Animal is the Future”—sparked unprecedented creativity among attendees of the 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles. The concept was brilliantly ambiguous, allowing for both historical interpretation and futuristic fantasy.
My personal preparation began months in advance. I commissioned a 18th century baroque gown in the historic toile de jouy fabric. And I ordered a mask—gold fabric pieces with golden rhinestones and shadowed eyes—from Etsy.
At the Versailles masked ball, dressing isn’t about fashion; it’s about transformation. You can embrace a character from another life, another world entirely. Daniel and his crew became macarooned nepo-babies.
This year my friends and I fully embraced our roles as aristocracy for the evening—partying like the rich, naturally extending our pinkies while sipping champagne, speaking with silly British accents (don’t ask why), and puffing out our bosoms with all the bearing of 18th-century nobility. My kids were impressed as we swept out the door with in full pomp and circumstance.
Fireworks Over the Grand Canal
It was a hot day, and we were running fashionably late. We parked in front of the castle and ran up to see Doug, our photographer, to get some golden hour shots before the party.
Around 11 p.m., just after sunset, we wandered through the wider grounds of the gardens, in the palace’s backyard. On the castle level, a mix of tourists and partygoers had gathered, all waiting for the fireworks to launch from the Grand Canal.
The show was perfectly timed to baroque music, with bursts of color lighting up the sky above Versailles. Below, red flames flared in rhythm with the beat, adding a dramatic touch. It wasn’t over-the-top—it was elegant, precise, and somehow still surreal in that setting. Louis XVI would have been proud.
The Grand Entrance to The Masked Bal of Versailles 2025
The entrance to the 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles was unforgettable.
After the fireworks, we descended the grand marble staircase—literally the same one Marie Antoinette runs up and down in the PBS Versailles series. Each step was lit by a flickering candle. The details were appreciated and not overlooked.
At the bottom of the stairs, there was a line as we waited to grab our bracelets (even Versailles can’t escape logistics), and after walking along hedges and palm trees (?), we arrived at the door of the Orangery. It looked like a glowing belly, ready to devour us in the best possible way.
By the time we descended the final staircase, the party was already in full swing. It felt like walking into another world. There were animals clawing and biting at us upon the entry. It was wild in every direction, costumed dancers close enough to feel their breath, meanwhile Fans fluttered, champagne fizzed, feathers bobbed.
Inside, the Orangery breathed like a living thing. The ceiling loomed high above us, and the golden light inside made it feel like we were dancing in the belly of a sleeping beast—warm, grand, and just a little dangerous. The music throbbed through the floor, heavy and hypnotic, the kind of beat you don’t just hear but feel.
The Setting: Versailles Palace Transformed
The Orangerie of Versailles is magnificent during daylight hours, but the 2025 masked ball transformed it. I was amazed at the access that we got to the gardens. I had never before had my feet on the ground in the Orangerie. Most of the year it’s blocked off to tourists. But this night we were sitting on the grass. Being able to walk through the gardens and smell the orange trees in bloom was a sensory delight and one of my favorite memories of the evening.
The People: Who Attends the Versailles Masked Ball?
While it’s true that it takes a budget to get there, Versailles masked ball didn’t caters exclusively to the ultra-wealthy. While some guests clearly are, the 2025 event attracted a remarkably diverse and creative crowd.
The 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles drew attendees including:
Artists, musicians, stylists, and costume designers see the event as the ultimate outlet for creative expression. Many attendees spend the entire year planning for this single night of extravagance. It draws a little bit of everyone – from international visitors chasing a once-in-a-lifetime bucket list experience, as well as long-time devotees who return year after year for the transformative atmosphere.
Age was no limit. We stood in line with a pair of middle-aged parents who had brought their 18-year-olds along for the adventure. A few friends showed up with their 65+ moms in tow—who actually partied longer than I did.
This place is big amongst the TikTok crowd. Amanda Rollins has been a couple times now, and threatens to return each year. One of my friends even spotted YouTuber, Amber Scholl at the event.
Performance highlights throughout the Versailles grounds included:
About every 30 minutes, something wild erupted across the floor and stage in a completely immersive show. Acrobats flew overhead. Feather-clad dancers strutted through clouds of smoke. Mermaids in sequins belted high notes like sirens. A pole dancer left jaws scattered across the floor. Topless men basked in roaring applause. Fire shot into the air. Sparkles rained down from the stage. And just when you thought you’d seen it all, a full parade of animals marched through the dance floor like it was the most natural thing in the world. Each act was more outrageous than the last—pushing the limits, lighting up the room, and leaving no moment untouched by spectacle.
Half-human, half-animal figures seemed to emerge from a collective dreamscape to growl and claw through the air at us. In that moment, I realized I was no longer in the everyday Versailles I knew. This was the 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles—and nothing would ever be ordinary again.
Dancing Until Dawn
For those with remaining energy (and I always find reserves for such occasions), the 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles continued indoors with an intimate after-party atmosphere. A second DJ created a warmer, more rhythmic mood as the formal evening transitioned into something more relaxed.
Shoes came off, corsets loosened, and elaborate makeup became beautifully smudged. We moved between laughter and reverie, inhabiting the final hours of a dream we weren’t ready to abandon.
I stayed until nearly sunrise, watching the Orangery gradually empty as costumed figures drifted toward the exits, their silhouettes growing fainter in the pre-dawn light. The palace slowly returned to its daytime stillness.
The Morning After: Returning to Reality
Walking home through Versailles’ quiet streets while still in full costume creates an oddly profound experience. The ordinary world returns, but you remain transformed. The magic of the 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles lingers in unexpected ways.
Rose petals still clung to my shoes. My hair carried the faint scent of smoke and expensive perfume. Though my face was finally bare, I felt more anonymous than during the entire masked evening.
What happens at the Versailles masked ball belongs exclusively to those present. Photographs are rare, videos almost nonexistent. The 2025 event’s memories live only in the hearts and minds of the 2,500 people who shared that extraordinary night.
Why You Must Attend the 2026 Versailles Masked Ball
If you’re reading this with a touch of regret, embrace that feeling. The 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles wasn’t merely a party—it was a moment suspended, a living work of art, a demonstration of what’s possible when 2,500 people collectively agree to step outside time into something more beautiful, wild, and real.
Here’s your invitation for 2026:
Start planning immediately—hotel reservations fill quickly. Source your costume with care and creativity. Don’t attend as an observer; come ready for complete transformation. Become the myth, embody the mystery, transform into someone worth remembering.
When the Orangerie gates open again, you’ll want to be there—mask in hand, heart racing, ready to join the most extraordinary celebration that history, imagination, and French champagne can conjure.
Pro Tips for Future Versailles Ball Attendees
In hindsight, I wish I’d approached the evening a little differently. Instead of rushing straight into the long lines to get inside, I should have taken a moment to linger in the gardens—the light was beautiful, the music had just started drifting through the hedges, and it would have been the perfect way to ease into the magic of the night.
I also learned that there’s no need to panic about coat and baggage check right away. The lines were painfully long at the start, but they thinned out significantly just 30 to 45 minutes after the doors opened and then stayed empty for most of the night. Same goes for the bars. If I’d wandered the outdoor spaces a bit longer instead of queuing immediately for drinks, I could’ve saved myself a lot of time and stress.
That initial rush felt chaotic and honestly took away from the sense of exclusivity and wonder I was expecting. But once the crowd dispersed a little, the atmosphere completely shifted—more intimate, more enchanting. Next time, I’ll let the night unfold more slowly.
Having experienced the 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles firsthand, I learned several lessons that could enhance your future experience:
Parking and Logistics: Even with top-tier (Fantastic) tickets, we discovered there was a dedicated parking area closer to the Orangery entrance/exit that we didn’t know about. Research all available parking options in advance to minimize walking distance in costumes in the heat.
Bar Access and Drinks: One surprising limitation: despite having premium tickets, we could only order drinks from one designated bar (reserved for Fantastique ticket holders), which served only champagne and soft drinks—no beer available for people paying top-tier. Weird. Maybe Versailles could address this for next year?
Timing Your Entrance: The entrance became quite crowded early in the evening, making the experience feel less exclusive than expected. The candle-lit paths changed to floodlights in the area where we got bracelets, killing the vibe a bit.
In hindsight, I wish I would have:
- Lingered in the gardens upon arrival rather than rushing into a huge line to get inside the venue
- Delaying coat and baggage check until lines shorten significantly (45 min/an hour)
- Killing time exploring the outdoor spaces before queuing for drinks.
- Allowing the initial rush to settle for a more intimate, exclusive feeling
The coat check lines were particularly long at the beginning of the night, even for top-level guests. The lines were significantly shorter 30/45 minutes after the doors opened and stayed short throughout the rest of the evening. S
The 2025 Masked Ball of Versailles proved that magic still exists in our world. Will you be there to witness it in 2026? Sign up for the newsletter to be first to hear about when ticket roll out for the 2026 ball.
