Would you like to host your own Picnic Among Friends for your community?
The first Picnic Among Friends was held in 2010 in Girrawheen Park in Sydney’s Inner West and since then, we’ve held a picnic every year.
During this time, we developed and refined the elements which made up this commemorative, supportive event. You can read our step by step guide, find out how to promote the event, and below we list the various elements you might like to include, as well as other helpful information.
Explore the inspiration behind each element, as well as images for reference. It’s up to you how many of these elements you incorporate, or if you add some of your own which have meaning for your community.
For further inspiration, we recommend joining our Facebook Group, where you can also register your own upcoming picnic, or search for other events being planned in your area.
Pack a Picnic
A core element of every Picnic Among Friends is, of course, the picnic itself. Encourage your Picnickers to bring their favourite foods to eat and to share, and picnic blankets or camp chairs to be able to eat in comfort.
Ceremony & Choir
It’s key that each Picnic is hosted by an MC who helps to keep planned elements of the Picnic on track, and ensures that the full experience of the day is felt by Picnickers.
Throughout the years, we were also fortunate to engage beautiful choirs who lifted our Picnics with their song and spirit.
Memory Tree
For the Memory Tree, we wrapped the trees in string and used this to thread in photos and flowers. Guests were invited to bring photos, an object, or to pen some words and share stories of those they were spending the day remembering.
Sometimes we were able to source seedlings from the local nursery and invited people to take these home at the end of the day, an symbol of new life.
Pass-It-On Tree
The Pass-It-On Tree provides space to record and share what our ancestors, family and friends have passed on to us – a handy household hint, a recipe, a maxim for life, a saying or everyday wisdom.
String was hung from branches with stones used as weights at the base to keep them steady. A nearby table was set up with lovely paper, pens, and mini-pegs to peg them to the string.
Meandering Mandalas
The Meandering Mandalas provide a thoughtful assortment of gathered objects — driftwood, stones, seed pods, broken china, and much more — to create one’s own personal mandala on the earth.
This meditative, restful activity helps to clear and focus the mind and is soothing in it’s repetition.
Kids’ Space
Our Kids’ Spaces were always different, but each featured a range of creative craft activities for young people to express their feelings and just have some fun time out. A focus on recycled material encouraged a green mindset. A Pets’ Place was also created in some Picnics to recognise the role our pets and animal familiars play in our lives. A favourite memento of a beloved pet could be brought, and space denoted to commemorate and share stories about them.
Artists’ Installations
Over the years, we've been lucky to include many wonderful local artists in our Picnics, who created installations for people to experience and reflect upon during the events. We also encouraged the creation of Environmental, or Eco-Friendly installations using renewable, upcycled materials to express the themes of loss and commemoration.
Other Ideas
Over the years we added installations to the Picnic, including a woven memorial to honour those whose lives were lost seeking asylum with our Asylum Seeker Memorial. We honoured our elders with a Grandparents’ Shrine, to which people brought recipes and pearls of wisdom that were passed on to them by their grandmothers and grandfathers to share.