PROVINCETOWN — There was no shortage of spectacle at the 36th annual White Party on Aug. 31, where 800 people gathered to admire each other’s white outfits and raise money for Outer Cape Health Services.
Bob Lenzi, who has hosted the party since 2014, said that this year’s gathering raised over $170,000 for the nonprofit clinic’s general fund, the highest amount to date.
Lenzi said his friend Peter Page had begun the party in 1988 as a farewell to summer and a final chance to wear white before Labor Day makes it taboo. The party grew, and in 2010 Page decided it should become a fundraiser for OCHS.
Page died in 2014 and Lenzi stepped in, opening ticket sales to the public and amplifying the fundraising aims of the event.
“When we started, we raised $500 or $1,000,” Lenzi said. “Now, we’re raising tens of thousands.”
The weather was fine last weekend, and a sea of brides, genies, angels, athletes, and other characters filled the beachfront lawns at the Delft Haven cottages. DJ Lee Thornhill spun club hits for the dancers, while others gathered in pockets of shade or lined up at the open bars.
On the beach, a swarm of figures in white hovered around a life-size sculpture of a whale built from wood and white ribbon by Lenzi’s friend Patrick Lamerson, who creates a new installation each year, Lenzi said. Between costumes, art, beachside revelry, and cocktails, the White Party puts a Provincetown sort of stamp on the end of the season.
Lenzi said that like this year, next year’s tickets will be sold online in early August, “and they tend to sell out really quickly, often within minutes.”
Most tickets are $50, although “whale donors” can choose to donate more, Lenzi said. “My goal is to keep it community-oriented, so anyone who wants to come can.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article, published in print on Sept. 5, incorrectly identified the men in the fringed leather vests in the photo caption. They are Patrick Dougherty and Paul Cooksey, not Brian Johnston and Jordan Gray.
