A half hour before DC Social Collective’s fifth-annual “All-American Country Summer Nights” was set to begin in Centreville, Virginia, the sky opened up and a wall of water fell across Fairfax County.

My Uber driver hesitated, fearing the hybrid’s battery might short‑circuit, but realizing that we were only a mile from the event, he forged ahead, plowing through a foot of runoff, the front of the car reminiscent of the bow of a boat. 

We turned onto the winery’s gravel lane to find cars streaming out. I initially thought the event must have been canceled. To my surprise, it was just the opposite. The parking lot was full.

At 6:30 p.m., almost to the minute, the storm cleared, and a (double) rainbow arched over the vines at The Winery at Bull Run, reminiscent of God’s promise of care to Noah after the flood — a serendipitous moment too perfect to seem scripted — and yet, as Catholics, we trust that God’s providence is active and his hand is writing our story.

 

One social-media caption after the event captured the moment, “The rain hit pause, we hit play.”

In a Register feature earlier this month, DSC founder Christopher Byrne described his post-pandemic dream of rebuilding community and fostering friendship “one soirée at a time” — a mission that now annually draws some 4,000 young adults to monthly gatherings throughout the DC/MD/VA region.

Last Saturday, Byrne’s core team, as well as a small army of additional volunteers, greeted guests with red, white and blue wristbands. Byrne, soaked from the rain, made sure everything was in place, before, in typical fashion, shooting a promo video.

A Setting Steeped in History

The Winery at Bull Run made an iconic stage for DSC’s July gathering. The working farm winery — the largest in Fairfax County — bordered by a horse farm and Manassas National Battlefield Park, invites visitors to sip vintages while walking the ground once trod by Civil War soldiers. Inside one of its rustic buildings, relics from Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia share space with oak barrels, a brass cannon and, for one night, the neon DSC banner overhead.

If the rain had deterred anyone, it didn’t show. Guests filed into the production barn for the early swing‑dance lesson, where silver vats lined the back wall and a Prohibition‑era bar served as a centerpiece. The instructor let loose a roaring “Howdy!” — and kept at it until the packed crowd hollered back loud enough to meet his satisfaction.

Following the lesson and the first bottles of wine uncorked, 500 guests — the largest crowd in DSC’s four-year history — moved from the barn to either the tasting room, the marquee, or the barrel room, depending on whether someone was seeking a drink, a dance, or the catered barbeque from the food truck DSC had arranged or the on-site pizza shack retrofitted from a utility shed.

In the barrel room, a DJ cued up modern country favorites; upstairs in the tasting room, Jacob DeForge & Goldbug Revival strummed on an assortment of stringed instruments, including a fiddle, banjo and guitar.

Faces in the Crowd

Beyond the music hall, string lights winked across picnic tables, and the scent from the barbecue carried on the warm July air, mingled with the scent of fresh rain. 

Those seeking the perfect aesthetic photo background wandered to the fence line, set against rows of vineyard, where horses could be seen grazing.

The mix of attendees showed how quickly DSC’s reach is widening. 

I shared swing dances with a couple of young ladies, gave line dancing a brief attempt, and then ran into some old friends from my parish who had moved out of state a couple of years ago — one now a FOCUS missionary at Columbia University and the other a former evangelization director at Baltimore’s historic basilica. At one point in the night, DSC’s head of security came by the patio, handing out rosaries.

I also met for the first time Chris Adams, who said that when he’s not working as a realtor, he balances volunteering with DSC, the Guadelupe Radio Network (an EWTN affiliate), and the national group Young Catholic Professionals. I also made the acquaintance of Chris St. Clair, DSC’s new videographer and husband of DSC’s event planner and coordination affiliate Margaret St. Clair. For those counting, that’s three guys named Chris on the team.

I also met Ashley Melton, a social-media strategist and the DSC’s newly minted brand ambassador, who joined the team in July. We traded stories about how we connected with DSC and shared a few laughs. 

 

Nic Barrows, a blacksmith by day and DSC events coordinator in the evening, described some of the planning process and how event themes are chosen, noting that the group has seen rapid growth in recent months as young adults increasingly seek real-life connection and community outside of the digital sphere.

Barrows also mentioned that he helps run Appaloosa, a Virginia-based, Catholic-run bluegrass festival each year, so helping DSC with events also helps him diversify. This year, the festival runs Aug. 30-31.

 Leisure, Communion, Joy

Byrne’s recipe remains simple: premiere venues, high production values and a Catholic ethos expressed primarily through leisure, communion and joy. The omission of formal programming or institutional connection is intentional and keeps the invitation open to non-Catholics.

DSC is evidence that “Authentic friendship is still one of the most winsome invitations toward Christ and his Church, and joy shared on a dance floor can be a first step — or two-step — toward something meaningful.”

On the Horizon

Having recently received proposals to start DSC chapters in cities such as Los Angeles and New York, DSC Social Collective is exploring possible expansion while sticking to its bread-and-butter formula of one blockbuster event every month. 

DSC will follow its July barn dance with an Aug. 9 “Strawberry Soirée” at President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C., a nod to Mary Lincoln’s summer strawberry parties. The evening will pair a brisk swing‑dance lesson with a jazz set by vocalist Daniel Murray, tours of the historic house, lawn games, flower‑crown crafting, and cocktails from a roaming champagne cart, as guests “sip, dance, and mingle under the golden hour sky,” according to the website. A VIP pass unlocks the seldom‑seen presidential parlor and balcony, complete with open‑bar service and a professional portrait. Suggested dress: breezy summer cocktail wear — florals, linen, seersucker and wide‑brim hats.

Whether you arrive solo, with friends, or on a first date, the invitation is the same: Bring your dancing shoes — or in Saturday’s case, boots — your best smile, and a readiness to make new friends. Event announcements and ticket links drop first on the website’s events page, but they never last long.

For me, my Saturday evening felt less like a detour from the spiritual life than a celebration of the goodness of creation and a foretaste, as Byrne puts it, “of the communion we’re made for.” It also underscores a neglected truth Pope Benedict XVI often reminded the faithful of: Catholics are not only called to fast well, but also to feast with equal abandon, “freed for a moment from the stern logic of the struggle for existence,” so that man may look “beyond his narrow world to the totality of things.” 

Benedict prophetically warned that the Church’s “obeisance to the rational world has been much too deep” in recent years and that “she has thereby let herself be robbed of a piece of herself.” (Principles of Catholic Theology) The remedy, he suggests, is “to learn again how to celebrate” — to rediscover the art of leisure and festivity, what the late pope called a “cheerful, liberating purposelessness.” He adds, “If we were to try celebrating in this fashion, would not a sigh of relief pass across the world?”

Saturday night, the clouds parted, a rainbow crowned the vines, and 500 young adults lingered over music, wine and laughter until closing time, reclaiming this joy of celebration and living out Mother Angelica’s advice, “You must laugh your way to heaven, because tears won’t get you there.”