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The yearly outdoor gathering in Detroit is known as Diner en Blanc (French for "White Dinner") or "The White Party."
In light of the Charlottesville craziness, people seemed particularly uncomfortable saying they were going to a "White Party." Actually, it's for people black, white all ethnicities, who just happen to all dress in white.
On Sunday night, beginning at 5 p.m., hundreds of elegantly and/or imaginatively dressed people came to Clark Park in southwest Detroit to celebrate the seventh annual local event.
Last August, the party was at Palmer Park. In 2015, it was at Heidelberg Project.
The idea began overseas in 1988, according to the website Untapped Cities, when a Frenchman Francois Pasquier in Paris invited friends to an elegant outdoor dinner, and only disclosed the location at the last minute. To find each other in the park, everyone wore white.
Today, the event spans five continents. The idea is for people to "flash gather" and set up a temporary, elegant dining area and then after several hours, clean up and move on. Friends involved in organizing the event invite people and those folks then invite others. Most people don't know the location until days before. Everyone brings food or beverages for their group table.
Among notables at the latest event were U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain, criminal defense attorney William Swor, Free Press senior editor James Hill, Freep columnist Brian Dickerson and wife Laura Berman, a former Detroit News columnist, ACLU's investigative reporter Curt Guyette, Chastity Pratt Dawsey of Bridge Magazine and Fox 2's Mike Elrick and wife Tresa Baldas of the Free Press, who invited me for the third year in a row.
M.L. Elrick of Fox2 News (right) was among the hundreds of guests, as were two gentlemen who went for a less formal look of resort-like casual elegance.
Freep columnist Brian Dickerson and wife Laura Berman, a former Detroit News columnist.
U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain (right)
A drone was flying around the party.
Women were passing out sheet cakes like the one Tina Fey had for a routine on Charlottesville on "Saturday Night Live." These are from Oak Park's Crystal P. Bakery.
ACLU investigative Curt Guyette (in hat).
People are happy to get the cake.
James Hill, senior news director at the Detroit Free Press.
