Sky Lounges, Gentlemen's Bars & Grand Lawns: The New Era of Event Venues

The Banquet Hall Had Its Moment

For the better part of three decades, the banquet hall was the undisputed king of Indian celebrations. Every wedding, reception, corporate gala, and milestone birthday followed the same formula: book a rectangular hall, set up round tables, install a stage, and call it an event. The hall might be in a hotel, a standalone convention centre, or a community space — but the format was essentially identical.

That era is ending.

A new generation of event venues is emerging — one that recognises celebrations as multi-dimensional experiences rather than single-room affairs. These venues don't just offer a hall. They offer an ecosystem of spaces, each designed for a different mood, moment, and purpose.

The Rise of the Experience Venue

What distinguishes a modern event venue from a traditional banquet hall? Three fundamental shifts:

1. Multiple Formats, One Property

Instead of one large box, the best new venues offer a portfolio of spaces:

• A grand indoor hall for the formal ceremony or seated dinner
• Expansive outdoor lawns for ceremonies under the sky, cocktail receptions, and live entertainment
• Intimate lounges for smaller gatherings, after-parties, or VIP receptions
• Rooftop or elevated spaces for sundowner events with panoramic views
• Bars and dining venues that double as social spaces between events

This variety means a single property can host an entire multi-day wedding or a corporate retreat with multiple sessions, without any space feeling repetitive.

2. Atmosphere Over Area

Traditional venues were measured primarily by square footage. Modern venues are measured by atmosphere. A sky lounge with a curated cocktail menu, mood lighting, and a panoramic view creates a fundamentally different energy than a ground-floor hall — even if it's smaller in area.

The best event venues understand that guests move through emotional registers during a celebration. The solemnity of a wedding ceremony calls for a different setting than the energy of a sangeet night. The formality of a corporate keynote requires a different ambiance than the relaxed networking that follows. Having spaces designed for these different registers elevates the entire experience.

3. Year-Round Usability

Traditional outdoor venues are seasonal — beautiful in winter, unusable in summer or monsoon. Modern venues solve this with a combination of:

• Large air-conditioned indoor spaces for weather-proof events
• Covered outdoor areas (pergolas, canopied terraces) for year-round open-air experiences
• Climate-appropriate landscaping that looks good in every season

Inside the New Venue Ecosystem

Let's look at the specific spaces that define the new era of event venues, using Le Roma Gardenia — an upcoming 5-star deluxe resort in North Bengaluru — as a reference point.

The Grand Banquet Hall

The banquet hall hasn't disappeared — it has evolved. Le Roma Gardenia's 9,000 sq ft AC banquet hall with a floating capacity of 1,200 guests represents the modern interpretation: vast enough for large-scale events, fully air-conditioned, equipped with professional AV infrastructure, and designed with aesthetic flexibility so that decorators can transform it to match any theme.

The key difference from older halls is ceiling height, lighting quality, and acoustic treatment. A well-designed modern hall feels open and grand rather than cramped and echoing. It functions as a blank canvas that can be dressed for a traditional South Indian wedding one weekend and a contemporary corporate gala the next.

Grand Outdoor Lawns

If the banquet hall is the anchor, the outdoor lawn is the soul of a modern event venue. Le Roma Gardenia offers two distinct outdoor spaces:

• The Grand Outdoor Lawn (30,000 sq ft) — A sprawling manicured expanse that accommodates up to 2,500 guests. This is where the magic happens: pheras under a flower-draped mandap at sunset, a sangeet stage with a professional sound and lighting rig, or a baraat procession with space for a band and dancing. At 30,000 sq ft, there's room for elaborate decor installations, multiple food stations, a dance floor, and guest seating — all without feeling crowded.

• The Garden Lawn (15,000 sq ft) — A more intimate landscaped space for 1,000 guests, ideal for cocktail evenings, mehendi ceremonies, or daytime events. The two-lawn configuration means you can run parallel events or dedicate each space to a different function during a multi-day celebration.

Together, these two lawns provide 45,000 sq ft of outdoor event space with a combined floating capacity of 3,500 guests — a scale that very few venues in Bengaluru can match.

The Sky Lounge

This is perhaps the most distinctive addition to the modern venue vocabulary. A sky lounge — typically an elevated, design-forward space with panoramic views — serves as:

• A pre-dinner cocktail venue where guests mingle with sunset views
• A VIP lounge for the wedding party or corporate leadership
• An after-party space with a curated bar menu and ambient music
• A sundowner event venue for product launches, brand activations, or milestone celebrations

Le Roma Gardenia's sky lounge adds a dimension that ground-level venues simply cannot replicate: the sense of elevation, exclusivity, and visual drama.

The Gentlemen's Bar

A dedicated gentlemen's bar brings the old-world charm of a private club into the event venue context. It's a space for:

• Pre-wedding drinks for the groom's party
• Informal networking during corporate events
• Post-dinner socialising in a setting more refined than a generic hotel bar
• Small group gatherings — bachelor parties, board dinners, investor meets

The design language of a gentlemen's bar — leather, wood, warm lighting, and a curated spirits selection — creates a mood that a banquet hall side-bar cannot match.

Multiple Restaurants

Having two or more distinct dining venues on the property means that guests aren't limited to the event catering for every meal during a multi-day stay. They can enjoy a leisurely breakfast at a different restaurant, grab lunch poolside, and then dress up for the wedding dinner. This variety prevents "catering fatigue" and keeps the culinary experience fresh across the entire celebration.

Who Benefits from Experience Venues?

Wedding Families

Families planning large, multi-day weddings gain the most from the experience venue format. Instead of booking three different venues for the mehendi, wedding, and reception, they book one property with multiple spaces. The logistics simplify dramatically, the visual coherence improves, and the guest experience is seamless.

Corporate Event Planners

Companies planning annual meets, leadership retreats, product launches, or client events benefit from venues that offer different settings for different sessions. A morning keynote in the banquet hall, an afternoon breakout on the lawn, evening cocktails in the sky lounge, and a team dinner at the restaurant — all on the same property.

Social Hosts

Birthday milestones, anniversary celebrations, engagement parties, and community events all benefit from having the right space for the occasion. A 50th birthday dinner for 100 guests in a gentlemen's bar feels very different from the same dinner in a 5,000 sq ft hall. The right space elevates the experience.

The Le Roma Gardenia Approach

Le Roma Gardenia, part of the Le Roma Hotels & Resorts group, is being designed with this multi-format philosophy at its core. Across its 6-acre campus, it offers the grand banquet hall, two outdoor lawns, a sky lounge, a gentlemen's bar, two restaurants, a spa, and 81 rooms — each space with its own character and purpose.

This is what the future of event venues looks like: not bigger halls, but better ecosystems.

Want to explore Le Roma Gardenia's unique event spaces? Get in touch to learn more.