The first annual dinner, to which the Royal Academy invites members of the royal family, distinguished public figures and notable patrons of the arts to celebrate the opening of the (summer) exhibition, was first held at Pall Mall in 1770. No annual dinner was held in 1896, 1901, 1915-1918, 1940-48 and 1952. Dinners at which invited guests could meet members, known as soirées, were held irregularly from the mid-nineteenth century.