I wrote this piece on the Diner En Blanc last year and was cracking myself up re-reading it.
Tomorrow I’m hoping will be a special guest blog entry from Jeff recapping his epic night of hauling tables and chairs across Philadelphia for the “secret” meeting place where the well to do can eat their own prepared food. Remember, you PAY for the privilege to dine on your own meal.
4,500 people attend this event and my feeling is that they say that the people who mock it are just “jealous”. As someone who has never attended I’m not judging as much as adding up the pieces to where no fun seems to be had. Here are the top Reddit comments regarding the event:
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i cant wait to see what part of the city is rendered entirely inoperable so a bunch of shit pigs in white h&m clothes can drink box wine on a folding chair in the middle of the street
- I’m not sure white people should wear all white and gather in secret.
- I find this event more embarrassing than when we booed Santa.
Someone compared it to the Broad St Run:
- The Broad Street run, if I’m not mistaken, benefits charity. Pretty sure Diner En Blanc is an entirely for profit event. Also, I realize Broad Street is on a much larger scale, but shutting down Broad on a Sunday morning for a non profit run that promotes health and benefits charity is a completely different animal than a for profit, mostly pointless gathering of privileged yahoos that jacks shit up at some location in the city on a weeknight around rush hour that is kept a secret until the day of so no one has the opportunity to plan around it.
- If you don’t like it, don’t go. If you think it’s a waste of money, don’t go. I’ve never understood why there is such backlash towards this. I fully understand people who were mad about blocking Broad Street- I don’t agree with the decision to go there. But every other event has not impacted the city in any negative way. I would much rather be called elitist than judgmental.
Looks like Broad + Washington… at least according to my drive home…
http://wmmr.com/2016/08/18/wmmr-promo-081816-diner-en-blanc-pretentious/ – click the play button for the soundclip
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