LUCKILY for the waiting staff at Glasgow's Hilton hotel it's not every function that they have to ease past a packed dance floor just to serve the starters.

But then the Girls Uptown fundraising night for the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, which takes place on August 29, is like no other evening.

About 650 partygoers will let their hair down to music from a string of tribute acts, boosting funds for the hospice's Brick by Brick appeal, backed by the Evening Times.

"Originally set up as a ladies lunch 10 years ago, it became a Friday night dinner and party a couple of years later, "says Laurie Nicol, general manager at the Grand Central Hotel and a member of the organising committee alongside Frances McMeeking, head of Cordia care services; Lorna McGowan, manager of national key accounts at Coca-Cola; and Ashley Thomson, senior corporate and events fundraiser at the hospice.

"The idea was to have a really good girls' party," she explains. "So we all get glammed up when work is finished for the week. It's an amazing night of fun, friends and the opportunity to get together and do good at the same time."

Each year the event is themed and, for 2014, the theme will be a giant birthday party to celebrate the event's 10th anniversary, hosted by comedian Des Clarke.

Expect birthday cake, balloons and man- candy butlers serving cocktails before the three-course meal.

"There's a real party atmosphere right from the start of the night, there are no inhibitions and everyone gets up to dance and enjoy themselves," says Laurie.

"Once you've been you never forget it, every- one comes back."

The serious side to it all is that the night raises abut £40,000 for the hospice.

The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice was set up in Glasgow in the 1980s to provide free specialist palliative care for people with terminal illnesses, primarily cancer, as well as support for families and carers.

The Brick by Brick appeal will help raise the remaining £15 million of the £20m needed to build the 21st-Century hospice on a site at Bellahouston Park.

To book tickets, contact Ashley Thomson on 0141 429 9887 or email ashley.thomson@ppwh.org.uk.

angela.mcmanus@ eveningtimes.co.uk