Le Dîner en Blanc Kingston 2016

What is Dîner en Blanc?

The Dîner en Blanc concept began in Paris in 1988 when Frenchman François Pasquier invited a group of friends to an elegant outdoor dinner at Bois de Boulogne, asking them to dress in white so they could find each other.^[1]The event’s presence has grown to nearly 60 cities and counting.

Before the event

In order to participate, guests must be a member or be sponsored by a member from the previous year, or they must sign up to official website’s waiting list.^[2]

Guests of organisers and table leaders of Dîner en Blanc Kingston are invited in the first phase. If you had been a guest the year before, you are invited in the second phase, while the third phase is open to everybody else. Once you receive your invitation, you have 48 hours to pay for your ticket online. At that point you choose your departure point, group leader and table leader. If going with friends it is important that you all chose the same table leader so that you may be seated together.

There is also an online store where you can purchase catered meals and wines for pick up at the event. The online store closes about a week before the event, so you have some time to think about what else you may want to purchase.

In the weeks leading up to the event, the table leader will communicate with you. General information such as details of departure, what not to wear etc., as well as details specific to your table (what to bring as centrepieces etc.)

On the day

Certain tweaks are made for the Kingston staging. I think most of them are wise choices. For instance, in most other cities, patrons get to the venue via public transport. However, I don’t think this would be feasible in the Kingston context. I don’t think our transportation system could manage approximately 1000 persons descending upon it at once. Public transport is not the most efficient, and is even less so with added pressure.

Guests in Kingston meet their table and group leaders at a pre-determined meeting point, and are then shuttled to the venue. Our meeting point was the Terra Nova Hotel. We collected our packages (armbands etc) from our table leader and got on board.

You still don’t know at this point where the venue will be. At first, based on the route we were taking, I was almost sure that it would be Hope Gardens. However when we took the turn at Matilda’s corner, I started to think of where on the UWI, Mona campus it could be.

 

The Event

The venue turned out to be the Usain Bolt track at the UW, Mona.  The beautiful thing about this type of event is that with the right organisation and some investment, you can transform any space into something fabulous… and it was quite fabulous.

 

The venue set up was high level and sophisticated.

 

It was pleasant seeing everyone floating in in their white attire.

 

Setup

I realized that my own table setting was a little underwhelming. Some persons really went all out.

The organisers source white tables and chairs and include the cost of rental in the participation fee. This was another good idea. Trying to source the required number of white tables and chairs in the specified dimensions would be quite a nightmare I think.

Dinner

The traditional ceremonial waving of napkins signaled the start of dinner.

 

The options regarding food are either to have your dinner catered or bring your own from home. There are some caterers directly associated with the event from whom you could pre-order online and pick up at the venue. When perusing those menu options, the only combination that had jumped out at me had dishes containing shrimp (to which my boyfriend is allergic ), so that was that.

In the end I decided to have catering a la mommy. We had French rolls, a garden salad, callaloo and feta stuffed chicken breast,  and an alfredo pasta salad. For dessert I commissioned from my sister, who is a pastry chef, chocolate cupcakes with a scrumptious buttercream icing.

I had won a bottle of Moet in a pre-event competition; I collected that at the venue and we had it after dinner. Our meal was a success I think.

Then came the lighting of the sparklers. All patrons got a sparkler (or two) and lit up the venue. It was a pretty sight.

With that concluded, the dance floor was open!

 

Party!

The pictures I have seen have not quite done justice to capturing the atmosphere!

The music was provided by DJs Kamal Bankay and Kurt Riley. There was a good mix of energy and great party music that kept patrons dancing non-stop. I hadn’t danced that much in a while! The music was tasteful and spanned sa rangeof genres and eras so everyone could get a taste of  something they liked.

From what I could tell most of the attendees enjoyed themselves and had a good time at Diner en Blanc Kingston 2016.  I certainly did!