Hate all you want, but at Philly’s Dîner en Blanc everyone is busy having a perfectly lovely evening

In front of a lit-up Please Touch Museum, thousands of people dressed head-to-toe in white dined and drank and danced on Thursday night, among white chrysanthemums and white feathers and tiny white lights in crystal bottles. Despite the annual cycle of hate Dîner en Blanc inspires in Philadelphia, the city’s 11th pop-up picnic managed to be lively and lovely after all.

Even the rain did its part, by stopping just in time.

“Once you come out and experience it, you’ll be glad that you came,” said Kellie Myers of Upper Darby, who was attending for the first time. “Whatever you need to do to get here, it’s worth it.”

Myers and her sister Kenya, a teacher who lives in Center City, had assembled a picnic of cheeses, meats, and seafood deviled eggs for a “Gatsby en Blanc” theme.

Attendees must lug their own tables, chairs, tablecloths, cutlery (no plastic), dishware, glassware, and food to the picnic. Behind the long rows of white tables, there were rows of grocery carts and coolers used for the schlepping. Everyone at the picnic must wear white — “no ivory, no off-white, and no beige,” the website notes — and guests don’t learn the location until moments before dinner begins. Guests cannot use the event to support a “local humanitarian or social cause,” per the official rules.

This year, tickets were $63 and the event was sold out, with more than 5,000 people attending, organizers said.

Zachary Lutz of South Philly has attended for about 10 years, and this year he went all out, hauling 8-foot white columns to the mystery location to create a Greek-inspired tablescape. Three baskets of fresh white roses swayed in the breeze over a cheese spread; Greek busts covered in luminescent paint, for after dark, were scattered across his table.

“It’s always a lot of work to get it together,” Lutz said. “You hate it until the moment of, but once the table is set up, it’s just such a good time.”

The lore is that Dîner en Blanc began organically in a Parisian park in 1988, when a group of friends agreed to wear white so they could spot each other. Since then, the picnic has gone global, inspiring both fury and devotion wherever it touches down. It’s held outdoors, rain or shine, and this year’s dinner was no exception despite Thursday’s dreary weather. The strict rules and self-serious marketing make it seem like the evening would be a stuffy affair, but the spirit is more like a celebratory outdoor festival than a highbrow dinner. Some guests even wore beige.

Critics say Dîner en Blanc is an event where snobs take over public space and effectively make it private, closing roads and increasing traffic and inconvenience for everyone else. Also, why pay so much when you have to supply everything yourself? As one detractor wrote in The Inquirer in 2019: “It’s an empty cavity that rots history and replaces it with vapid, social media-friendly pop-up experiences.”

Fans say it’s a magical experience where strangers come together to create a beautiful, fleeting party for one night a year.

As night fell, a live band performed Beyoncé and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme; two women with the group Philly Girls Jump! played double-dutch with lit-up jump ropes in the middle of the crowd. Performers in white face paint and feathery angel wings zoomed through the crowd.

In past years, attendees of the massive pop-up picnic have taken over the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Circle, Boathouse Row, and Rittenhouse Square.

“It’s because of the people,” said Gail Branson of Spring Garden, taking an official break from the dance floor but still dancing in her seat. She had dined on salmon and salad for dinner and was drinking Chianti from a wine glass engraved with flowers. “The vibe to me is very upscale, funk, friendly, and a lot of fun.”