In case you somehow missed it, the White House Correspondents’ Association had its big annual dinner this past Saturday night. And by all measures—despite years of conjecture that a combination of the Trump administration and a global pandemic had finally killed the whole affair—Washington’s so-called “nerd prom,” is back. There were parties days before, and the morning after, and the demand to participate was so high that “a lot of mid-level White House officials couldn’t get into certain events because they tried to get on the list too late,” said one White House reporter. “People still want to do this fucking thing for whatever reason,” they said, proclaiming this weekend the “liveliest” in years, and “a return to form.”

There was even quite a bit of interest in the dinner itself—for many the biggest chore of the party-filled weekend, with reliably bad food (though, I heard the salad had some nice cheese this year, and the steak wasn’t horrible) and a lot of sitting around. Trevor Noah was at least more entertaining than the event’s most recent host (sorry, historian Ron Chernow). Many media outlets didn’t get the number of seats they wanted to because “there were more requests than there were available tables,” said one editor who was in attendance. “Lots of people were saying that this was the biggest event they’ve been to in years, and people just seemed thrilled to be out.”

So what did it feel like to be at a party seemingly resuscitated back to life? One reporter who was at this weekend’s Washington Correspondents’ Association Dinner asked whether I was familiar with the meme of a dog in a house engulfed by flames, pretending like everything is fine. “Have you ever been to a party where everyone was trying to force the energy?”

Some saw that energy as affirmation that the tradition was alive and well despite being twice scrapped due to the pandemic and undermined by Donald Trump, who refused to attend while in office and directed his staff to snub as well. The backdrop, of course, is the likelihood that a Trump or a Trump-like Republican could be in office in a few years and once again render the whole confab a thing of the past. “Clouds looming,” said one media executive in town for the event. Did the vibe feel different just because Trump wasn’t there? “I think Ukraine and worrying about democracy made journalists think they’re important,” they said, noting there was a palpable sense of self-congratulation that felt “back to the good old days of slapping yourself on the back really hard.”

Still, some noted that it wasn’t quite the same Hollywood glitz as past affairs had; Drew Barrymore was there, and so were Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson, but one White House correspondent in attendance noted the the “weird mashup” that comes with, say, seeing the Speaker of the House chum it up with Jon Hamm, was lacking this year. “There wasn’t a lot of lingering or socialization before the dinner at The Hilton nor after,” said the correspondent, recalling how “the dinner would let out and people would go celebrity hunting, linger in corners and wait for Bradley Cooper” in previous years. “It wasn’t quite the full-on celebrity bash that it was during the Obama years, but the mood was much lighter than during Trump’s term,” HuffPost’s Amanda Terkel said. “After all, there isn’t an administration and a president in office declaring the media the enemy of the people.”

And, of course, looming largest over the event, was COVID, and the Gridiron-dinner-turned-superspreader that occurred not long before—“another totally unnecessary, douchey” dinner, as a White House reporter described it, bringing reporters and political officials together. “Inherently by being there [on Saturday] you’ve made a different set of decisions,” that White House reporter noted, and “if you actually care about COVID you’re just not going to a dinner like that.” The safety risks—which prompted the Washington Post to cancel their pre-dinner reception—were covered ad nauseam in the lead-up to the weekend; yet at the dinner, which required proof of vaccination and a negative test result, some still seemed surprised by the conditions they’d subjected themselves to. The room was so packed, said one reporter, that, trying to get up from their table at one point in the evening, they barely had enough room to scoot their seat back. 

After days of socializing, another White House reporter chalked it all up to “a weekend of glorified, slightly tipsier than normal networking.” But was it fun? “No. These weekends are never fun.”

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