All Out in White

A couple of weeks back on a Thursday evening a Star staff member sent a text message to one of the editors about a massive party on the beach at Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett, suggesting we had to see it to believe it. Arriving a little before 8 p.m., we were surprised and a little put out to see a uniformed attendant associated with the event who appeared to be blocking the entrance to the large public parking lot. Finding a parking spot near the beach access, we walked down onto the sand and looked to the east.

A couple of hundred guests, all dressed in white, were mingling around equally white-topped tables, served by white-dressed staff behind full bars, also white. Large white illuminated orbs lined the path from the public restrooms in the now guests-only parking lot. A reggae band was doing its thing as we climbed a lifeguard stand to get a better view. No, this wasn’t P. Diddy’s annual event, just something a bit more prosaic.

East Hampton’s beaches are long, and at this time of the year, plenty wide to accommodate such events, but this just seemed wrong. Too big, too ostentatious, if rather tasteful and swank. It appeared, on reflection, to be a fair summation of a lot of what this place seems to stand for, at least in the minds of some.

It’s hard to say whether such big events on the town’s beaches should be more strictly limited. This one, other than being something to behold, was really not much of a problem. Still, a little self-restraint by all concerned would not be a bad thing.