What Is It?

Is the above picture:

The biggest wedding in the world?
The biggest bunch of coincidentally, identically dressed tourists in the world?
The biggest BYOE in the world and you weren’t there, you loser?

If you chose #3, you’re right.

You’re still a loser.

Because you weren’t at this exclusive BYOE – Bring Your Own Everything – event, with thousands of your closest personal friends.

But they were there – in secret locations all over the world from Los Angeles to Budapest and points in between. In 70 cities on five continents every year, masses of people all dressed in white congregate to eat.

Eat what?

Food they brought themselves. And…
Your table is set up but…are those plastic glasses?
Beverages they brought themselves with…
White tables, white tablecloths, white napkins, and chairs they brought themselves and…
Dishes, silverware and glasses they brought themselves and…
They’ll clean up with garbage bags (preferably white) they brought themselves and…
Go home and do their (white) dishes themselves.

They brought everything to this event – hence the above-mentioned BYOE – and here’s the best part:

They paid to do this. Paid.

I don’t know about you, but to me this sounds a lot like eating at home, but a lot more work.

“It’s experiential,” says one guest.

Well, that explains everything.

This exclusive event is Le Dîner en Blanc, French for The Dinner in White, and the idea was, in fact, launched by a Frenchman nearly 30 years ago, according to their website.

This “chic picnic” takes place at a location so secret that the guests aren’t told where

buses_01 — The buses are also *en Blanc*, of course.

they’re going until the last minute. Then the thousands of people are taken en masse via chartered bus or organized public transportation – along with their tables, chairs, food, etc. – to “a crowded public place that was not designed for such a purpose.”

Wait – seriously? Isn’t this what restaurants are for? You go to a restaurant, not en masse, not schlepping furniture and food, because the furniture and food are already at the restaurant, which is not a crowded public place and is designed for such a purpose.

Can’t you just hear the conversation?

“Louise, where is it again, this place we’re going for dinner?”

“I don’t know, Richard, just grab the chairs and the napkins. No, the white napkins!”

wearing white and dressing elegantly_05 — Dressing elegantly *en Blanc*; stormtrooper helmet optional.

The guidelines are strict: To attend you must be a member of Le Dîner en Blanc or sponsored by a member; attendance is mandatory, rain or shine (doing all this sounds especially enticing in a thunderstorm); your food must be gourmet; you must wear white and dress elegantly; and originality in your garb is encouraged “as long as it stays stylish and denotes taste.”

Guests, the website notes, are expected to conduct themselves “with the greatest decorum, elegance, and etiquette.”

I was wrong. This is a lot more work than eating at home.

But apparently the concept is a big hit, especially with millennials, definition: the generation born in the 1980s to early 1990s and have way too much time on their hands.