[This article is reposted from Aug. 19. General admission tickets remain available here for $35. Sunday's forecast shows a high of 75 degrees and likely no rain.]
Summer in the city . . .
. . . dressing so fine and looking so pretty.
Why shouldn't we party like New Yorkers?
That spirit, along with a surge of Detroit pride, spurs Alison Chevalier to plan a stylish bash Sept. 13 called the Detroit Gatsby Lawn Party. It's shaping up to be a swellegant Sunday soiree, as Cole Porter might say.
The lawn is near Palmer Park's fountain. The Gatsby hook is a 1920s-30s jazz age theme. And the party consists of live music, the Charleston and other dance moves, cocktails in a "speakeasy tent" and contests.
"I love that park," Chevalier says of the setting, alongside Woodward just above West McNichols Road. She's an entrepreneur who grew up in Allen Park, graduated from Michigan State and now lives in Detroit's New Center area.
Her career path wound through San Francisco (IT project manager and, separately, design agency creative director) and Manhattan (social media consultant) before Chevalier came back here in April.
She also has lived in Chicago and London, the party planner ("chief Flapper") tells Deadline. Experiences in that string of world-class cities inspire next month's venture -- a mix of civic celebration and business startup.
Alison Chevalier: "I wanted to make something that was for everybody."
"I saw ways that cities rejuvenate through community building and placemaking," Chevalier says in a phone interview between sips of morning tea. "Having this event is an important part of placemaking" and a way to bridge "dividing lines between suburbs and the city."
A big influence was the chance to see a twice-yearly event called the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island in New York Harbor. "People dress up and are so cool," Chevalier says. The latest was last weekend, promoted as "New York City’s original prohibition era inspired gathering." Tickets started at $55.
Chevalier, who also envisions an annual affair, charges $35 per person at this site). Children 12 and younger are free.
Part of the proceeds will benefit Friends of the Alger Theater, a nonprofit group that wants to renovate the 1935 Streamline Moderne movie house on East Warren in Detroit.
The 11 a.m.-5 p.m. affair is billed as "an event the likes of which Detroit has not seen in decades." Small plates by Detroit chef Brian Psenski will include oyster sliders, Waldorf salad and an item to be determined.
The party has a stylish website, hashtag (#DGLP) and Facebook page.
Activities include Charleston lessons, best-attire prizes in three categories, actors and dancers in period garb, a 1920s Detroit history exhibit, two music stages and a sidewalk chalk art contest.
Entertainment comes from Zander Michigan (folk music), Randym Cyrcumstance (folk rock) and Planet D Nonet (jazz, swing and jump). Gary Herzenstiel will spin vintage 78 rpm records. (Ask your grandparents.)
"I wanted to make something that was for everybody, including families," she emphasizes. Nonpaying visitors can share the atmosphere with access to an acoustic stage, a few activities and food trucks such as High Octane from Motor City Casino Hotel and Taste Budz. "There will be plentiful space to picnic around the event's ticketed perimeter," she posted last month.
Off-duty police officers will provide security, Chevalier says.
The chief Flapper, who works "all day and into the night" on the party, squeezed out time to order a semi-sheer dress, cloche and pink shoes for Sept. 13 from modcloth.com. "I won't be glammed-out," she notes.
That's not to say she doesn't encourage others to dress as Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan would, and as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald did.
This swanky whip probably won't be at the party, although it was at the Woodward Dream Cruise. (Photo by Alan Stamm)
