Kings Dinner
DC Mardi Gras

A full circus
in the Atrium.

Washington Mardi Gras brought EventPro into the National Portrait Gallery Atrium with one brief: turn it into a circus. The annual Kings Dinner, sponsored by Cheniere Energy, draws 500 guests into one of Washington's most architecturally distinctive spaces. Nothing rented, nothing pre-fabricated. Every piece designed and built from scratch.

The centerpiece was a massive freestanding striped center pole, red and white, built entirely in-house with no rigging to the floor. From the top of that pole, swaths of red, orange, and yellow fabric spread outward to the edges of the Atrium, rigged to ceiling points with string lights and carnival pennant bunting woven throughout. Walking in, it reads as a circus tent. That pole carries the visual weight of the room.

Around it: a full custom Side Show stage with a fabricated marquee sign, warm-bulb surround, diamond harlequin scenic flat, and matching stage skirt built to hold a live band. A companion photo arch with the same marquee and harlequin treatment gave guests the photo moment of the evening. Antique wagon wheels, barrels, and carnival wagons dressed the floor, each one hand-painted in-house by an EventPro artist. The classical columns ran deep magenta and purple. EventPro is based in the Mid-Atlantic. The National Portrait Gallery Atrium is a space we know how to build in.