How Nairobi's 4th Diner en Blanc went down in unforgettable evening filled with style and glamour (photos)
Life is too short to wear boring clothes and on Saturday patrons in 'the City in the Sun' were resplendently decked in blinding white attire.
- Diner en Blanc is an annual dinner held in Nairobi city offering consumers an exclusive all-white dining experience and entertainment at a secret pre-determined location.
- Tickets to the invite-only all-white dining experience and entertainment were going for Sh4500 ($45) but the catch was you had to turn up in white or else 'watch from the fence.'
- The evening was filled with visually breath-taking moments including the waving of a cloth napkin to mark the beginning of the dinner and the lighting of sparklers to let guests know they are now free to mingle and dance.
You would be forgiven for mistaking them for a congregation of faithfuls on their way to Mecca only that they were not wearing Kanzus. Well, a few were but modern ones inspired by the likes of Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
The thing is that though they were no faithful's per say but party lovers who had taken a vow to make merry while the sun still shined on their foreheads and were on their way to a secret location for the annual Diner en Blanc for what promised to be an unforgettable evening.
'We are excited to once again create a one of a kind experience that brings together friends and family for a memorable evening. Our theme this year was celebrating life; which inspired us to create a magical night full of great memories,' said LeAnne Peris, Dinner en Blanc Host.
Diner en Blanc is an annual dinner held in Nairobi city offering consumers an exclusive all-white dining experience and entertainment at a secret pre-determined location.
This year, the event was held at the Karen Waterfront, a world-class town centre designed to capture the imagination of the new age 'Nairobite' and to evoke the spirit of 'Engare Nairobi' that the Maasai drew upon years ago: 'place of cool waters'.
Tickets to the invite-only all-white dining experience and entertainment were going for Sh4500 ($45) but the catch was you had to turn up in white or else 'watch the whole show from the fence.'
Guests were also required to carry their own table decor, napkins, candles, food and drinks, cutlery and a picnic basket etc. There was an option of pre-ordering your food and drinks from the Diner en Blanc event organizers in case carrying picnic baskets around town was not your thing.
Guests, however, had to first meet at Sankara Hotel located in Westlands and after brief formalities and check-in slowly made their way to Karen Waterfront but all along they were clueless where they were heading to since that's the whole point of the experience.
The bus driver purposely used a different route just to add to the whole 'guest's confusion' experience.
It is no wonder some guests who didn't make it to Sankara got lost and spent hours wondering where this year's fun was going down at.
'I was stuck at the Ngong race course waterfront parking lot (the apparent pickup location) alone for a good hour and a half. I almost gave up when I came across other people who were also 'lost' and so we decided to hack it together and find the venue. Turns out, it was at the Karen waterfront not the Ngong racecourse one,' Kendi who was attending the Diner en Blanc for the first time said.
However, once she arrived at the venue together with other guests quickly forgot about the tiny mishap and gave in to fun and merry making.
Everything was white and the garden had been decorated with beautiful hanging fairy lights that elevated the ambience.
Guests at the Karen Waterfront experienced an incredibly glamorous-looking dinner party complete with live music and sparklers.
'We are excited to create an exceptional experience with Cîroc for the Diner en Blanc after party. We believe this partnership will go a long way to create new exciting experiences for our consumers and bringing out the spirit of magical entertainment,' said Chepkorir Koech, EABL Reserve Brand Manager.
The evening was filled with visually breath-taking moments including the waving of a cloth napkin to mark the beginning of the dinner and the lighting of sparklers to let guests know they are now free to mingle and dance.
The highlight of the night was however when the guests led by beautiful confident women took to the floor and 'shake it off' all worries and stress under the stars. Seeing their fairer sex having all the fun some men soon managed to gather enough courage and within minutes the Karen Waterfront roof was brought down by excited guests.
After that, there was an after party at the basement organized by Ciroc which went well into the wee hours of the morning.
Diner en Blanc, which began in Paris in 1988 and has been held in over 80 cities in 30 countries, began as a word-of-mouth event and has taken off internationally.
Since then it has been celebrated on six continents and continues to attract hundreds of patrons every year. This year's Diner en Blanc saw 572 people grace the 'must-attend' event.
At the end of the evening, guests packed up all of their belongings, picked up all their litter and headed back into the night, leaving behind no sign of their elegant revelry.
'I had lots of fun at the event because I chose to have fun, the band was good and I liked the music but I believe there is a room for improvement and I feel the organizers can do much better than this, they can try next year to at least offer a bottle of wine, go out of their way to make guest feel more exclusive and have more options of ordering food on ground if you don't want to carry baskets around and the like, but it was fun.' Said Samantha.