Around 4000 people gathered outside the iconic Sydney Opera House yesterday for the annual Dîner en Blanc “chic picnic” event.
The “dinner in white” concept was launched 27 years ago in Paris by François Pasquier in what originally began as a “friends and word-of-mouth only” event. Dîner en Blanc has since grown internationally and has been hosted in incredible sites around the world including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Hudson River Park in New York, Pershing Square in Los Angeles and Kings Cross in London.
The global dining event prides itself on a secret open-air location which is not released until the day of the event where thousands of guests come dressed in white for a mass “chic picnic”. Dîner en Blanc is expected to go ahead even when it’s raining with diners bringing their own food, hampers, furniture, wines and champagne to the dining event.
Last year’s event in Sydney took place at Centennial Park attracting around 4,000 guests while the previous year saw the Dîner en Blanc held in Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The first Dîner en Blanc in Sydney was held in 2012 where 1,500 guess gathered in the forecourt of the Museum of Contemporary Art for the annual picnic.
Melbourne celebrated its first Dîner en Blanc in March this year outside the Convention and Exhibition Centre while Brisbane had their inaugural dinner in 2012 in the South Bank Parklands.
The event has attracted 100,000 guests from over 60 countries in 2015 alone.
This year's event saw 4000 Australians gathering at the steps of the Sydney Opera House for the annual 'chic picnic'.
The invite-only secret dinner party began in Paris in 1988 with the inaugural event taking place at the Parc de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne. François Pasquier asked his guests to dress in white so that they would be easier to locate.
The success of the first event led to further dinners held at the Champs-Elysees, Chateau de Versailles in Paris, The Arc de Triomphe and The Invalides in Paris.
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