The Brooklyn Ball 2010: Food, Glorious Food!

Cheese dripping from dangling heads, socialites hacking into suckling pigs, and a delicious yet disturbing mountain of roasted rabbits were just some of the you-had-to-be-there-to-believe-it sights at Thursday nights "Brooklyn Ball."

The annual gala put on by the Brooklyn Museum featured works by artist Jennifer Rubell that were notable for their scale and of course their edibility.

Watching wealthy donors and patrons of the arts feast on fine food is nothing new, but seeing them forced to carve whole sides of beef and fetch their own drinks was a serious, and welcome, departure from the norm. While one would expect a benefit crowd to balk at such an idea -- understandably so for those teetering in high heels and decked out in fine couture -- from the diners' faces it appeared to be liberating.

With the likes of Chloë Sevigny, Mario Batali, Zach Feuer, Alison Fox, and Diane von Furstenberg looking on (as well as partaking), the crowd quickly got into the spirit of things, grabbing hunks of meat and whole vegetables before taking their seats at huge banquet tables ringing the museum's Beaux-Art Court.

Guests gossiped and guffawed, clinking wine glasses with fellow diners in an environment straight out of Medieval Times. Think Knights of the Round Table in Marc Jacobs and Gucci.

And if that wasn't carnivalesque enough for people, there was an actual carnival following the meal that included face-painting, drag queens, and of course Rubell's giant piñata of Andy Warhol's head that when smashed open was revealed to be full of Twinkies, Ho Ho's, and other sorts of corn syrup-laden sweets -- a stark contrast to the earthy and pure dinner dishes.