Parties of the Week: Dîner En Blanc, and DesignAgency and byMinistry’s Summer Block Party

Dîner En Blanc, Toronto and Vancouver

The concept for Dîner En Blanc is quite simple: white-attired guests gather for a picnic dinner in a public space. The idea began in Paris in the late 1980s, as a way for founder François Pasquier, whose garden was un peu petit, to have dinner with all of his friends after returning from a big trip. The Bois de Boulogne served as the site of that first dinner, and in the 30 years that have passed, the event has evolved into a kind of phenomenon, with some 70-plus cities now participating around the globe. In 2009 the event came to Montreal, via Pasquier’s son, Aymeric, and the event quickly made its way west. Vancouver’s eighth annual Dîner En Blanc saw 3,500 white-attired guests on Aug. 8 come together in George Wainborn Park, while the evening before, saw 2,500 out for the Toronto incarnation near the base of the CN Tower on the grounds of Roundhouse Park. Guests arrived with their own meals, wine, tables, chairs and even flower arrangements, and after dinner (which commences only after diners wave their white napkins in unison to signal its start), they danced. Orchestras have performed in years past, as have have various bands and, more recently, DJs took to a stage throughout the evening. By midnight or so it all wrapped up, with guests dispersing back into the city, as if none of it had ever happened.

Christian Dare and Carly Stojsic.Handout

Tyson Villeneuve, David Bentall and Jordan Kallman.Sarjoun Faour/Handout

DesignAgency and byMinistry host their seventh annual Summer Block Party

DesignAgency founders Allen Chan, Matt Davis and Anwar Mekhayech hosted their seventh annual block party on Aug. 7, drawing design buffs and party enthusiasts out to toast a new neighbour and celebrate all things design. This year, the studio, which encompasses interior design, architecture and branding (their lauded projects span the globe among them the St. Regis Hotel Toronto), partnered with their soon-to-be neighbour, byMinistry. The cannabis consumption lounge and cultural space is set to open across the street from their Adelaide Street West offices in early 2020. Shauna Levy, the former head of Design Exchange, who now heads byMinistry, was among them in attendance.