A huge crowd packed the Portland Museum of Art for last night's Winter Bash hosted by The Contemporaries in celebration of the opening of the "Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography" show. It was another amazing party attended by many of Portland's beautiful people. The show itself is a definite must-see, and it was a blast to check out how everything came together after getting a sneak peek as it was being installed last week.

I knew it was going to be a stellar gathering when I walked out of the coat room and the first things I encountered were trays of mojitos and lemon drops. And even though I have a known weakness for lemon drops, I opted for the mojito because I knew those test tube-style glasses could spell trouble.

The evening's delicious eats came courtesy of Kitchen Chicks Catering, and Gritty's, Portland Beverage, Southern Wine & Spirits, Stirrings and Diageo all donated funds in support of the bar. And while none of my photos do justice to how absolutely stunning the Great Hall looked, it was the result of the creative talents of Moonlighting Productions, Pandora LaCasse Design and Transformit. To give the event a real rock show vibe, Reverb greened up the party and made sure it was a carbon neutral event, which is what this Portland-based nonprofit does for tons of touring shows.

The museum's chief curator Tom Denenberg (left) and co-chairs of The Contemporaries' Steering Committee Hilary Robbins and Chris Robinson gave us some insight into the show, and shared the wonderful news that the group surpassed its fund-raising goal and raised more than $26,000 in support of the "Backstage Pass" show. Way to go Contemporaries!

I got a chance to talk with lots of friends, and even managed to snap a few photos.

Here's Elena Murdock and Kristen Levesque.

Here's Carla Kingston, Jonathan Dunitz and Shannon Bryan.

And here's a photo of the photographers. Both Jacqueline Richardson and Samuel Cousins were among the paparazzi there to capture all the action. You can see some of Jacqueline's photos in MaineToday Seen.

Even Adam and I rolled out our best rock 'n roll looks.

Should you want to be a part of The Contemporaries next throw down, be sure to join up before April 28, when we'll be getting a private tour of The Artist Studio Building.

UPDATE: Check out more photos from the party on Samuel Cousins' Flickr site.