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| Sunday Times article |
Joburg is the first city in South Africa to host a Diner en Blanc, the 25 year old tradition which started in Paris. Take that, Cape Town! It is this Friday somewhere in the city. As per the custom, the actual setting is kept secret until the very last minute. We are invited and we can't wait!
What is Le Diner en Blanc you ask? If you don't know, then here is a description taken from the International Le Diner en Blanc website: (If you do, then skip ahead!)
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| Sunday Times Lifestyle article |
In the summer of 1988, Pasquier had just returned to Paris after a few years abroad and held a dinner party to reconnect with friends. So many wished to attend that he asked them to convene at Bois de Boulogne dressed in white, so as to be recognizable to one another. Each attendee was also asked to bring a friend. The evening was such a hit that guests wanted more friends to join-in the following year and thus was born the concept of Dîner en Blanc.
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| Saturday Star article |
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| Le Diner en Blanc NYC |
Aymeric Pasquier and Sandy Safi then came together to create Dîner en Blanc International, a Dîner en Blanc® organization that would promote the history and philosophy of this event through hosts worldwide, and create an international network of diners and Dîner en Blanc® enthusiasts. With over a dozen cities having joined the Dîner en Blanc® family in 2012, what began (and remains in Paris) as a “friends and word-of-mouth only” event has grown into an international epicurean phenomenon across five continents.
Though the technology behind the event may have changed over the years, the principles fuelling this fantastic event have not; diners continue to gather at a secret location with the sole purpose of sharing a high-quality meal with good friends at the heart of one of the city’s most beautiful locations."
We have planned our menu (we are going with an all-white menu too!), put together our all-white outfits and packed our picnic basket with an all-white service and napery.
All we need now is the location!
I feel slightly robbed as we have recently attended an event called Diner en Blanc… attendees have paid R1000 per couple to be a part of the event and the night came to an abrupt end within 30 minutes of starting with the rain and hail. There was a lack of control and assistance when the night was suspended. After enquiring further, we were told that no refunds will be submitted and the event will not be re-scheduled.
ReplyDelete“Come Rain or shine”, this is what the event organisers promised… well the former definitely did not want to outshone by the thousands of guests who attended this year’s Dinner en Blanc. An evening which promised to be the highlight of the calendar Year has now turned into a potential PR nightmare for the organisers.
Personally we had looked forward to the event for months, and detailed preparations had gone into ensuring that we complied with all the rules of the event organisers – and we were happy to do so, to be part of the experience.
In hind sight, we could only hope that the event organisers could have performed their own due diligence for an event so “spectacular” as they purported.
Now it’s easy to get carried away by subjective opinions of the night, and I’m sure many will, but let’s look at the facts.
• Rain was predicted 7 days ago – event organisers were aware of this – “Come Rain or Shine”, as they said
• Guest were informed to come prepared – which we did…
• During the month September we have a 63% probability of Thunder Storms in JHB (https://weatherspark.com/averages/29019/Johannesburg-Gauteng-South-Africa - Latest 2012) – Fact.
• If you have been around JHB in the last 3 years, you should be well aware that the Hail Storms during this period has gotten progressively worse –Just ask the thousands of Car owners who have had Hail Damage to their cars -Fact.
• Organisers would probably argue - Force majeure - If non-performance of a party is due to an impediment which is beyond the reasonable control of that party and could not have reasonably been foreseen by that party at the time of conclusion of the contract, and neither the impediment nor its consequences could have been avoided or overcome by the non-performing party ("Acts of God", "Force Majeure", "höhere Gewalt"), an the non-performing party did not assume, explicitly or implicitly, the risk of the occurrence of the impediment that party's non-performance is excused. However the Event Organisers were well aware of the Impending Weather hazard –Fact.
My biggest concern would be, what if guests were struck by lightning?
This would have been a tragedy of Epic proportions. “We can all recall the school boys who were struck by lightning just last year while playing Cricket”
Bringing these thoughts back home, we had a guest who was pregnant, what if something happened to her? Thank God nothing did! Would the Event organisers have washed their hands clean of that as well?
What were their Contingency plans? No Plan B? So hope and pray guests don’t get injured, trying to escape a lighting Storm? Should they not have constructed a marque for guests to “weather” out the storm which was predicted?