Behind the scenes of a state banquet: a glimpse inside St George's Hall, Windsor Castle

Tonight, King Charles III and Queen Camilla will welcome some 150 esteemed guests to Windsor Castle for a state banquet honouring the Sultan of Oman.

The white tie dinner, which is expected to be attended by senior royals including the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, will take place beneath the vaulted ceilings of St George's Hall. Traditionally, state banquets are hosted within the gilded surrounds of Buckingham Palace but it remains under renovation.

Instead, teams of staff from the royal household have been meticulously preparing Windsor Castle for the occasion. Planning for a state banquet begins over a year in advance and it takes four days to set up the table, which runs the length of the hall. Although the exact details of a state banquet change depending on the season, venue and country being honoured, there are some similarities that run through all such royal occasions. The dress code, for example, is always white tie: calling for white tie, formal military dress, traditional dress, or evening gowns, as appropriate. Tiaras and military medals are also worn.

The three-course menu is carefully planned and chefs try to use local suppliers. Highlights from the menu for the German state visit in 2025 include an open tartlet of hot smoked trout with langoustines, quail eggs and shellfish sauce; Windsor partridge supreme wrapped in puff pastry with confit cabbage and port sauce; and Baked Alaska with blackberry, vanilla and raspberry ice creams. Flower arrangements, meanwhile, are taken at least partly from royal residences. For the German state banquet, arrangements included hand-picked seasonal flowers and foliage from Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, as well as flowers from The Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park.

St George's Hall has found itself at the centre of royal events for generations. The current hall as it stands was largely rebuilt after the great fire of 1992 and features a ceiling studded with the coats of arms of every single Knight of the Garter since the order was founded in 1348. The armoured figure on horseback at the east end of the hall is known as 'The King's Champion'. The Champion used to ride into the Coronation banquet held in Westminster Hall, throw his gauntlet three times and challenge anyone to deny the authority of the new sovereign.

The Hall, before it was destroyed, was built as part of Jeffry Wyatville's modernisation of Windsor Castle in the 19th-century. 'In creating this enormous new space, Wyatville had demolished the finest part of Charles II's work at the castle, the old St George's Hall and Private Chapel,' explain experts from the Royal Collection Trust. 'These two rooms, which lay end-to-end along the north side of the Quadrangle, had in their turn replaced the massive timber-roofed hall and chapel constructed by Edward III in the 1360s and 70s.

'The loss of these two spectacular Baroque interiors, painted by Verrio and adorned with some of Grinling Gibbons's finest carvings, has frequently been regretted and Wyatville himself was not in favour of throwing the two areas together, fearing that the overall length of the new room would not be in proportion to the height. However, the poor condition of the roof structure in particular convinced George IV that rebuilding was necessary; and he was in any case attracted by the idea of a new and enlarged hall to act as the secular centre of the Order of the Garter.'

The new hall, which stood until the 1992 fire, became a regular setting for state banquets as Buckingham Palace undergoes extensive works. Tonight, St George's Hall, Windsor Castle, will once again be back in the spotlight when the great and good of British society gather to honour the Sultan of Oman.