Diner en Blanc 2012

We braved the wet rainy weather, a potential thunderstorm with umbrellas open, dragged our own chairs and tables to a meeting point thru rush hour traffic, brought either our own picnic or pre-bought food and vino to be apart of something.  This was the official Diner en Blanc where a lucky few hundred people had the opportunity to participate in a pop-up flash mob picnic.

So I did have a chance to take part last year in the unofficial Diner and it was one of the most memorable and magical nights and was very excited to be invited to the party again.  See last year's post here (DEB 2011).  I also had a chance to extend the invite to a couple of my friends and to be honest - it was a big job.

I had to get them all signed up on their own, then get our tables grouped together to ensure we could share the experience all together in the same area, then had to answer all their questions about dress code (yes, we have to wear white and no shorts t-shirts please), why do we have to pay to bring our own tables and chairs? what happens if we don't have chairs? what if it rains? is it cancelled?, where is it?? you get that!  I had to coordinate our tables, chairs and food and beverages and then have to get us all there... It was exhausting and it was a bit grumpy but we all got there! Some made it to our meeting point at Roy Thompson Hall and jumped on the bus.  My car with the remainder of my friends, didn't make it due to construction, rain and traffic.  We ended up figuring out the secret location via twitter and drove to the mystery spot which was Fort York.

It was amazing to see the sea of white dresses and suits as people started to arrive with their tables/chairs and picnics, hundreds through the rain.  It was spectacular that everybody was compliant in their dress and mostly followed the rules of the evening.  We set up shop in the pouring rain and debated about leaving because we were just getting drenched and cold.  We didn't have white plastic ponchos to keep us dry nor enough umbrellas amongst us so we couldn't enjoy our food as it was just getting soaked from the rain.  But with a lucky twist of fate, the skies cleared midway through dinner and that's when the night changed.  We could finally walk around, people watch, dance to the live jazz and opera performances and enjoy ourselves.
When the sun went down, we all lit up the night with sparklers and it was just amazing.

Another huge success to the organizers of this event!  Next year the rumours that this secret dining experience could be as big as 2000 people which I look forward to!