PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — An annual pop-up picnic that has been going strong in Philadelphia since 2012 is adding another city to its roster — Atlantic City.
Since 2012, Natanya DiBona has been co-hosting Philadelphia's largest pop-up picnic, known as Dîner en Blanc. Patrons pay a fee, dress in white and get led to a secret location in which they set up an elegant dinner party.
And this summer, to coincide with Philadelphia's 10th event in August, they'll be hosting an inaugural event in Atlantic City in June.
"The mayor was very aware of Philadelphia. Our videographer is friends with him," said DiBona, "and so he had been watching our videos for years and had been wanting it to come to Atlantic City."
When DiBona met with Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small last fall about potentially bringing the event to the shore, he not only knew he wanted it there, he also assembled a group of about 25 people to join her at that meeting.
"Which is really helpful because so much goes into it," she said. "It's not only their special events department, but it's fire and it's police and it's the health department."
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That means DiBona is in charge of running two huge pop-ups in cities a little over an hour away from each other.
"It's kind of a little crazy, I guess, to think of but I feel like we have a really great structure in place and really great team members, so we think it'll go very well but it is very interesting to attempt doing both at once," she shared.
Hundreds of volunteers are also involved in helping to run the event, and those who attend bring all of their own supplies.
"Everyone who attends brings their tables and their chairs, and their food and their linens, and that really makes it an easy set-up," she explained. "Everyone does their part — just set-up quickly and break down quickly."
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Demand for the event typically exceeds capacity, so DiBona said they have a lottery system for registration.
"In Philadelphia, if you've attended the year before, you get a phase one invitation. If you then register in phase one, you can sponsor a friend and they get an invitation in phase two," she detailed.
"Phase three is for everybody on that waitlist. So everyone gets an invitation, but obviously, yeah, there's a smaller amount of spaces available at that point."
And DiBona said she's already seeing enthusiasm for the Atlantic City event.
"We already have 1,200 people signed up, so for the first year in the first week, that's pretty exciting," she said. "It shows that people in this area are very aware of this event because of 10 years in Philadelphia and that there's interest."
And the exact date hasn't even been announced yet.
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