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Diner en Blanc blows up the Internet

Thousands of wannabe patrons tried to log in at once. What do you think would happen?

Diner en Blanc - the secret dinner party planning its second appearance in Philadelphia this summer - is apparently too popular.

Hundreds of people trying to log on to its website this morning crashed the international organization's server - not once, but twice.

DEB - which will take place at an undisclosed location on Aug. 22 - has 2,300 spots up for grabs.

An unspecified number of those who attended last year and their friends were allowed to buy their spots in two phases of an online lottery. The third phase - open to those who went online previously to add their names to the waiting list - was to open this morning.

The 500 log-ins at 10 a.m. caused the international site to crash, said Philly DEB rep Kory Aversa. They got a message that the system was unavailable. After DEB folks rebooted, 2,000 tried at 10:45, causing a second crash.

Aversa - who emphasized that the event is still not sold out, despite Twitter rumors to the contrary - said they'll try again at 10 a.m. July 19.

Keep an eye on Facebook and Twitter.