There are 30,000 People on the Diner en Blanc Wait List
Diner en Blanc 2015 returns this weekend with what is simultaneously one of the most loved and most loathed events of the summer season. If you’re not keeping score, the ultra-exclusive soiree charges a select number of individuals for a dinner party at which they must wear all white and—this is the shocking part—they have to make plans for their own dinner, either bringing a picnic or opting for a catering option offered by Diner en Blanc. As Monica Weymouth explains in a piece published on phillymag.com this morning, “There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who are shopping for white folding chairs today, and those who would sooner set themselves on fire.”
I tend to find myself in that latter category, which is why I had fun dissecting a Q&A with the event’s organizers, Natanya DiBona and Kayli Moran, that ran in this weekend’s Inquirer. Did you realize, for instance, that the waiting list to get in is 30,000 people strong?! Here are some other interesting tidbits:
There’s drama between the Diner en Blanc folks and those who run Diner en Noir.
When asked to comment on Diner en Blanc knockoffs like, Diner en Sweatpants and Diner en Noir, DiBona remarked that the latter had “been very hateful.” She goes on to describe a quibble on Facebook that happened when the Diner en Blanc system crashed when too man people were going on to register. “Within an hour, [Diner en Noir folks] were on our Facebook wall, banding together. This girl said, ‘Rejected at Diner en Blanc? Come to Noir!’ And I said, ‘You weren’t rejected. It crashed!'”
Here are some of the ways Diner en Blanc folks spend their earnings:
Public space and entertainment, like dancers, musicians and a DJ. There’s the balloons and all the helium it takes to fill them. And an order of sparklers for 4,500 people.
Participants get angry if someone wears cream instead of white.
DiBona says attendees get rattled when their fellow diners don’t wear cream, because, well it screws up all the photos that are going to show up on your Instagram the next morning. “When you look at pictures of the event and everyone is wearing pure white and you do have someone wearing cream, it’s very noticeable.”
For shame! Check out the rest of the Q&A here. To be number 30,001 on the Diner en Blanc waiting list, go here.
