Diner en Blanc Location Will Be Revealed Tonight
In 2014, Diner en Blanc Philadelphia was on the Avenue of the Arts. Photo by Johanna Austin
By year five, you should know what Diner en Blanc is: A posh pop-up dinner party in a public location that’s kept secret until just before the event begins. And since the event is tonight, by 7 p.m. your Instagram and Facebook feeds will reveal where it’s all going down — unless you’re one of the 5,000 who got notified by the organizers because you managed to score a coveted invite. How coveted? More than 30,000 signed up for the 2016 wait list.
Paired guests (no single registrations allowed) pay to dress head-to-toe in white and lug a table, chairs, place settings, décor, food and drink first to a holding location and then to the party itself, where they’ll set up, sit down and wave a white napkin to signify the start of dinner. Entertainment and dancing follow.
Diner en Blanc tends to be divisive. But for everyone I’ve talked to who thinks it sounds ridiculous, there’s someone who’s been to a past Diner en Blanc and loved the elegant spectacle — the very un-Philly-ness of it, said one friend, but that’s a whole other discussion — or who got a kick out of watching crowds in all white drift through the city. And hey, if you’re in the first batch, you can always hope attendees get rained on again like last year. I’m not judging you.
As for where Diner en Blanc will be, we can rule out previous locations. Which means if you want to avoid it, you’re safe hanging out in Logan Circle, on the JFK bridge, along Broad Street for a few blocks south of City Hall, and in the Navy Yard.
The first Diner en Blanc in Philly was at Logan Circle. Photo by Georgi Anastasov
Follow @RachelVigoda on twitter.
