From car boots to proposals and Paris Hilton: This is how the Birdcage came to be

For one week of the year, the Birdcage at Flemington Racecourse is the centre of Melbourne’s social life.It’s where Geoffrey Edelsten proposed to Gabi Grecko (and dropped the diamond ring), Paris Hilton hooked up with Rob Mills, and champagne house Mumm once installed a swimming pool.Mumm installed a swimming pool in its marquee in 2016. AAPFrom its beginnings as a place to catch sight of the horses as they were saddled up to its transformation into the place to see and be seen trackside, the Birdcage has witnessed it all.This year’s extravagant Lexus marquee features Jason Jones’ French bistro Entrecote, but the restaurateur says that while the Birdcage is more refined and elevated these days, he has fond memories of the parties at Lavazza and Mumm.“The swimming pool in Mumm, that was pretty wild. I definitely did not hop in, because the bodies in that swimming pool were ones that you wanted to see. Mine wasn’t,” he says with a laugh.In the Crown and Marmont marquee, DJ and hospitality entrepreneur Grant Smillie remembers Mills, an Australian Idol contestant turned musical theatre star, in hot pursuit of Hilton when she attended the Cup in 2003.“It was like, wow, every young buck in town thought he had half a shot,” Smillie says. “She ended up at the Myer marquee. That was insane.”Smillie credits former marketing expert and celebrity wrangler Mitch Catlin with executing “the best PR stunt of all time” when he installed a cardboard cutout of Kim Kardashian at the Swisse marquee in 2011 after she pulled out less than 48 hours before the race.Other celebrity guests over the years have been hit and miss. Supermodel Naomi Campbell showed up late to the Lexus marquee and left early, while movie star Matt Damon got right into punting and posing for photos with guests.Supermodel Naomi Campbell attends the Birdcage in 2013. Luis Enrique AscuiCrown ambassador and Birdcage regular Rebecca Judd says her best Birdcage memory from “recent history” was last year’s Derby Day.“It was a rave,” Judd says. “I had a driver booked at 5pm, but I didn’t leave until 7.30pm.”However, the influencer and entrepreneur’s fondest memories come from her first time attending, when she was aged 21.“That was epic,” she says. “Just seeing it all, being a girl from Perth just walking in and seeing the scale of it all, was just insane.”However, the Birdcage wasn’t always a celebrity playground.Taking its name from the Newmarket racecourse in the United Kingdom, the enclosure has always been a popular spot at Flemington.The Age reported in 1908 that an estimated 90,000 people attended the Melbourne Cup, noting, “a huge human mass is observed to be surging in the direction of the Birdcage”, where the atmosphere was one of “intense anticipation” ahead of the race.As cars became more common, the area transformed into a place for Victoria Racing Club members to park their vehicles and host picnics of champagne and sandwiches from their boots.Public relations guru Judy Romano of Romano Beck claims credit for kicking off the Birdcage as a place for corporate entertainment when Carlton & United Breweries was the VRC’s major sponsor.One of Romano’s clients at the time was the car company Saab, so she organised to take over 10 of the car parks CUB had in the Birdcage for staff to park their cars.“I put two Saab cars on display,” Romano says. “Then it’d get dark, and so I would just pull the cars around, turn on the high beams, and turn all the radios on for music until 10 or 11pm.”Gabi Grecko poses with her engagement ring after Geoffrey Edelsten proposed at the Emirates marquee in 2014. Getty ImagesAs the Birdcage’s popularity grew, Louis Vuitton and Emirates joined the enclosure. It was senior vice president of media relations, sponsorships and events at Emirates, Boutros Boutros, who came up with the idea of raising the marquees.“I think it’s great everybody comes. But nobody watches the races,” he told Romano. “You can’t see a horse.”At the time, the view from the Birdcage was obscured by a brush fence, and Romano stood on her car to test if elevating the marquees would allow people to see the horses.“So that’s what we did,” she says. “It became a bit of a competition to see who had the best marquee ... [socialite] Lillian Frank named it Millionaire’s Row, and we all laughed about it.” At its peak, the Birdcage housed 50 marquees. “Every square inch was marquees” Romano says.The enclosure has also been a major place for business networking, with James Packer and Anthony Pratt in attendance, along with Gina Rinehart, who famously took a tumble down the Emirates marquee stairs.Gina Rinehart on her way in to the Emirates marquee in 2016. Scott BarbourKevin Mapson, managing director for Pernod Richard Pacific, has spent many years overseeing Mumm’s marquee at the Birdcage.“The year we did the Moulin Rouge was amazing,” he says. “To get the dancers to come out from Paris and entertain us was just ... you never forget that experience.”Mapson says other highlights include installing a replica rocket to celebrate Mumm being the first champagne in space.“If I have to pick one moment that was really special, it was having Usain Bolt as a DJ in the marquee,” he says. “I show my kids photos of that, and they still can’t quite understand what their dad does for a job.”However, this year, Mumm is one of a dwindling number of brands still investing in the Birdcage. Lexus, Crown, Nine, Tabcorp, Don Julio, Asahi and Mumm are the only big-name marquees remaining in 2026.As brands compete to have the most impressive marquee, the cost of hosting has also soared, with some brands like Crown charging for access for the first time this year.“Times have changed,” Romano says wistfully. “People just don’t have the money any more.”Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.