When the PTO Fall Fête sets sail on the “Cruise to Nowhere” Friday, Oct. 24, at the Marriott Springhill Suites on Devens, event chairman and cruise director Andra Evans will welcome aboard more than 200 passengers for an evening of dinner, dancing, and auction fun. The annual event, the PTO’s largest fundraiser, starts with cocktail hour and cash bar at 7 p.m. Passengers return to port at midnight, after a buffet dinner of chicken and carved roast beef, dancing to reggae band Noddaclu, and silent-auction bidding on more than 160 items.

Dress is Harvard casual, irreverent, or black tie, Evans said. And while many attend the Fall Fête as couples, recent years have seen a trend of friends coming together as a group. Everyone is welcome, Evans emphasized, because the focus of the evening is fun and raising money to support PTO-funded projects at both Bromfield and the elementary school.

According to Carolyn Grant, PTO co-treasurer and Fall Fête co-chairman, last year the Fall Fête brought more than $27,000 into PTO coffers and accounted for almost half the total funds raised all year. The money, which was disbursed equally between the two schools, funded scholarships, new playground equipment, books, new technology, and math and reading intervention materials, she said.

Both women are excited about the number and quality of items received for the silent auction, which include an electric guitar, signed sports items from Boston teams, parties for kids hosted by HES teachers, a poker party for adults, and the ever-popular “Manicures and Merlot” event. From Oct. 17 to the 22, some items will be available on a pre-auction basis, Grant said. One of these is a ride in a Harvard police cruiser in the Fourth of July parade; another is a week at a local camp. Details and bidding procedures are on the PTO website at www.harvardpto.org.

The PTO will also bring back the 60-40 cash raffle that evening, with one lucky winner taking home 40 percent of the whole ‘pot’ raised in the raffle, Evans noted.

As they have seen the cruise-ship theme come together under legendary decorations committee chairman Shanna Large, both Grant and Evans have gotten more excited about another great evening in the works and can’t wait to set sail.

“There’s not another event I know of where people can go out as adults and have a fun night of dinner and dancing that benefits our children and our schools,” Evans said. “It’s just loads of fun.”