Binzento Vincente: Dîner en Blanc 2014

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Dîner en Blanc 2014 - Calgary Edition

Dîner en Blanc - Binzento 360^o

(photos by: Binzento)

Global phenomenon Dîner en Blanc, a tradition started in Paris, was held past Thursday in Calgary. This year was the 2^nd time the city hosted this exquisite invite-only outdoor dinner event, which attracted more than 2,500 people to attend. It was a bit chilly to picnic in the fall, especially in Calgary I am not going to lie, but thankfully mother nature had done her best to keep us, and our food, dry.

Beyond the wave of beautifully dressed crowd all in white accompanied by delicious food, beverage and music, there were also our lesser glamorous moments – taking the city transit to the “secret location” and walking two miles carrying our table, chairs and a basket full of dinner essentials… Nonetheless, it was still considered a successful event, more entertaining than the one in previous year.

How I wished to see once again the “white hat ceremony”, a tradition that made Calgary’s Dîner en Blanc truly unique. Perhaps the organizers thought that was “been there and done that”. It would been amazing to see too more than one performing stage – participants at tables below the hill could hardly make out what was happening on the stage and could hardly hear what was going on.

Given the vast grass field which was not quite an attractive location to host Dîner en Blanc, It was still nice to see couple installations that quickly became the hot spots for photos. And of course the firework candles moment at the end of the dinner was expectedly spectacular.

The afterparty, just a few steps away from dinner location was an added bonus. I would never like to carry my fifty pounds belongings all the way back into the city and expect to show up dancing on the dance floor.

Thank you Calgary for hosting another year of Dîner en Blanc. I am sure all the positive aspects from this year’s event have out numbered any negativity - sore arms are forgotten.