Revelers in Detroit will gather tonight for Dîner en Blanc, an international dining phenomenon in which guests dress entirely in white and gather for an elaborate picnic at a location that remains secret until shortly before the event.
Detroit’s first official Dîner en Blanc, held outside Michigan Central Station on July 26, 2025, drew close to 1,000 guests.
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The city’s inaugural event “quickly became one of the city’s most talked-about social gatherings,” Michigan.org reported, with local celebrities and members of the media among those who gathered “for a night of elegance beneath the summer sky.”
Tickets for this year’s Detroit dinner range from $52 to $77 per person and are sold in pairs. A $52 ticket requires guests to bring their own table and chairs, while a $67 option includes a table and chairs. A $77 option includes bus transportation but requires guests to bring their own table and chairs. A $14 membership fee also applies to each ticket.
Detroit is one of more than 80 cities around the world that have hosted Dîner en Blanc, with U.S. editions taking place in cities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans.
Dîner en Blanc traces its origins to Paris in 1988, when François Pasquier organized a picnic for friends after his family returned to the city following several years in Tahiti.
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“Our garden was too small, so we decided to host a picnic in the Bois de Boulogne,” Pasquier recalled in a 2018 interview published on the official Dîner en Blanc Paris website. “To make it easier to find each other, we agreed to dress all in white.”
Pasquier said the dinner proved so successful that the group repeated it the following year, and attendance eventually grew to more than 1,000 people.
The 30th anniversary edition of Le Dîner en Blanc de Paris, held on the Esplanade des Invalides in June 2018, included a record-breaking 17,000 guests.
Part of the tradition is holding the dinner in a public space not normally intended to accommodate such a large gathering.
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“It must be carefully controlled for everyone’s safety and so that the city will allow us to hold future editions,” the organization said.
The destination is kept under wraps as guests make their way to designated meeting spots throughout the city. From there, volunteer table leaders guide groups to the final location, according to the event’s website.
The secretiveness of the location adds “an air of mystery and excitement to this festive, community-focused picnic,” according to Michigan.org.
The suggested dress code is “crisp linen, dreamy lace [and] bold accessories.” Gold, silver or nude accents are allowed, but partygoers are encouraged to keep their outfits “mostly en blanc,” with specific instructions for “no ivory, no off-white and no beige.”
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Depending on their ticket package, guests traditionally arrive with folding tables and chairs, along with white tablecloths and napkins, tableware, food and a garbage bag for cleaning up afterward.
On-site rentals and catered meals are also available in some cities, and guests are encouraged to be creative and “go all-out” with décor — white, of course.
