A picnic unlike any other will unfold in Prospect Park on June 28 as thousands of guests dressed only in white descend upon a secret location with food, drink and decorations to seize the night.
Brooklyn is the latest destination for Handmade’s PopUp dinner party: an event that has inspired nights of glitz and revelry across the U.S. since its inception in 2011. The first event attracted 3,500 diners to the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the home city of creators Garrett Sathre and Nicole Benjamin.
The pair was inspired to hold the dinner after seeing photographs of a similar party in Europe. White dinners have been held since 1988, when a small group of friends wore white so they could find each other in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne at the so-called Dîner en Blanc. Since, the impromptu parties have cropped up across the world, from Singapore to Sydney, Canada to Copenhagen.
After being overwhelmed by the response to their San Francisco event in 2011, Sathre and Benjamin went on to hold PopUp Dinners in Los Angeles and San Diego that year, and this year, others will be held in the Twin Cities and Miami. The PopUp in Prospect Park is expecting as many as 5,000 people.
Just hours after discovering where the event will be held, guests will dress head-to-toe in white from any era — the more elegant, the better — and enter the park armed with picnic food, bottles of beer, champagne or wine (one bottle allowed per person) and decorations, including tablecloths and silverware. A night in the park means dinner under the stars, save for the candles or lanterns guests wish to bring.
After decorating the tables (which are provided by the event organizers, along with chairs), diners will signal the beginning of their feast with a wave of a white napkin, before enjoying an evening of food, live music and dancing.
After drinking and dancing for a good cause, the dinner guests will play a part in cleaning up before leaving as if nothing ever happened.
The event, which is presented by Acura, will take place Saturday, June 28 from 5-11:00 p.m. in Prospect Park (exact location will be released on the day of the event to ticket holders). Tickets went on sale this morning, Monday, April 28, at 9:00 a.m. for Prospect Park members and will open up to the public at 1:00 p.m.
Guests will pay $35 for the event with proceeds going to the Prospect Park Alliance. The first 500 tickets will cost $25, and all remaining tickets will cost $35 (capacity is 5,000). To get on the guest list, email popup.brooklyn@gmail.com
For more information, visit Handmade Events’ webiste.
