Storm clouds and a few raindrops failed to deter the crowds, who had already formed a decent queue before the installation opened.
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A marquee helped protect the artwork from the rain and wind, leaving the sugar to melt in people's mouths, rather than on the table.
String instruments helped add to the atmosphere, with musicians playing as guests filed through.
The artwork on display at Commonwealth Place for Enlighten Festival on Saturday night was good enough to eat.
Though many of the meals on offer at the nearby Night Noodle Markets resembled works of art in their preparation, Japanese-Australian collaborators Ken and Julia Yonetani's 20-metre edible art installation was in another league.
The sugar banquet, which patrons could both see and taste, was available only on Saturday night, offering a metaphor for human consumption and its large-scale impact.
The Yonetani work is part of The Last Temptation, their first large survey show on display at NGA Contemporary,
The work, created as a response to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, features chandeliers made from uranium glass, each representing a country that operations atomic power stations.
It also includes a nine-metre table made from groundwater salt sourced from the Murray-Darling Basin.
