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So the big reveal is finally upon us! We’ve been bursting to let you in on what we’ve been up to lately and now we can finally spill the beans. This morning we gathered participants from last year to join world-famous 3D artist Kurt Wenner and invited them into his latest creation to launch this year’s Big Lunch in quite frankly stunning fashion!
The five-by-five metre 3D masterpiece took a total of four hours to create and sees giant sandwiches, fruit, cakes, burgers, buns and cups of tea breaking free from a Big Lunch table and “floating up” into the hands of the surrounding Big Lunchers.
It’s great to see a legendary artist like Kurt back the campaign too;
“The scene I have created is vibrant, colourful and joyous, born from people of all walks of life coming together and enjoying the unique community and friendship feel of many Big Lunch events.”
Simon Kenton from Oxford, who participated in The Big Lunch in 2009 said:
“When I heard about the Big Lunch last year I thought this was a great campaign for my community to be involved with. At the event there was a real buzz as our village united. This year we’re aiming to increase the great community spirit created – this is only the beginning! It’s great to meet some fellow Big Lunchers today and hear how their communities have been affected also by this simple act of togetherness.”
Eden Project and Big Lunch co-founder Tim Smit also had time to tell us why The Big Lunch is so important;
“We believe it’s important to see neighbours and communities come together to break down barriers and build bridges with each other. It’s time we realise that our streets are more than just pavements but solid foundations for our future happiness. Holding a Big Lunch is the perfect opportunity to take the first step towards this.”
The Big Lunch 2010 is only eight weeks away, and today, for those of you who love to lunch, and are planning a street party, Kurt’s work should serve as another reminder of the imminent deadline for applying to your local council to close your road. Now is also the time for those lunchers opting for a BBQ in the back garden or a picnic in park instead, to start gathering neighbours together to plan for the biggest Big Lunch this country has ever seen!
We’ll have more video footage from today’s event a little later on but in the meantime, you can take a look at a few more photos on our Flickr album and remember, you can sign up and register a lunch here or see who is already getting their party under way here!
Big Jubilee Lunch 2012, an Eden Project
pretty cool.
can anyone tell me what street this is on? I think I live close by, I'd love to show the kids.
aberdeen rd, off Highbury Grange – it was used for the shoot
I live near this street so I went to have a look earlier and it seems to be all gone now :(
Is this Big Lunch thing a myth? I've never seen ANY EVIDENCE
of it in Kensington W8, Ken Church Street in particular.
Can I join in somewhere else? Always feel SO left out.
it was a photo shoot – so wrapped up in a few hours – the real deal will be on the 18th July check out http://www.thebiglunch.com for more info
Hi, The Big Lunch definitely isn't a myth! We had nearly a million people take part last year. If you visit out website http://www.thebiglunch.com/map/find-a-big-lunch…
you can enter your post code and find a Big Lunch happening near you. There seems to be a few nearby!
is anyone else having problems with neighbours having dramas we live on a private estate so dont need to have our road closed by the council so now some of our neighbours are refusing to move there cars and works vans and others are just trying to spoil it for others we only have a small square so need the space as we have a D.J and dancers coming
Thats a pretty sad scenario – not moving cars etc – we had a lunch last year and needed to divert traffic off the rd – and also clear the street of cars on the rd and people drive to maximise the space – we leafletted all the houses/flats giving them suggestions where to park for the 6 hrs of the lunch – we also got a group of us to park on all the spaces the night beforew so we only had to move our cars!!! gorilla tactics – but it worked. Generally u will always find a few grunpy folk – but if everyone is out on the day moving the car – it can make them move theirs as they feel guilty – Also ask the nice neighbours ro talk to their neighbours about the parking thing and the word might spread – alot of people are grumpy because they dont listen to what u have asked them : good luck – i have a flier if u want it explaining to residents what to do with their cars if you want it – email me biglunchpoperoad@hotmail.com Just go 4 it!!!!
We run a residents association and as far as I know there have always been street parties in our roads going back to 1940's. What we are finding is that the objections are now going up a gear – so, roads where we always used to have street parties now have 1 or 2 objectors who will now raise objections. Their objections are based on problems that seem to the rest of us to be either rather trivial or entirely mythical but the bottom line is that they don't want us to try to fix the problem, what they are really saying is that they don't want a party in their street. Last year for the Big Lunch we had 7 objectors across 4 roads – which gave us a planning nightmare. We did eventually find a street corner we could close and we held what most people felt was a great party – but we still had 1 objector afterwards who was simply apoplectic with rage at our children's street art (chalk on the pavement) even though it was washed clean away by the rain 2 days later. Most of our residents are either grateful for, or else indifferent, to what we are trying to do in bringing neighbours together – but we now do seem to have a small number who will always object on the grounds that it interferes with their privacy, disrupts their parking arrangements, etc. Of course you can always move the party elsewhere – to a village hall or patch of open space – but the downside of this is that it is much harder to feel you connect with the locals in the same way as if it is in their street and the numbers attending tend to go down. I can't help feeling that the objectors have got more than their fair share of influence here – and of course they always expect the residents association to respect their anonymity too. Any thoughts as to how we can deal with objectors in the long term – or is this just another symptom of our “stressed communities” perhaps (we're in the South East) and so set to continue?
I would just go ahead and do it – if they dont like it they can either stay in their house or go for a walk somewhere.
Please dont stop what you are doing – at the end of the day everyone has a choice to either join in or not – People that tend to not join in may join in in the future as they probably dont get what you are doing. Just remember if the world was based around the people that object to everything nothing would actually ever get done and know new experiences would occur. Be strong, be polite and have a GREAT BIG LUNCH !!!:) may the force be with you!!!
Thanks for your encouragement! Sadly, these people are long-standing residents who feel we are encroaching on their privacy. Some have been to previous street parties but have decided they are not a good thing, so will do what they can to block them. Some of them will make complaints to the Council as soon as anything like this is mentioned. We have always tried to make a real effort to be polite, well-organised, and clear up after ourselves afterwards – I'm not sure whether we could have done more to try and win people onto our side but it seems there is a small hardcore of people who find residents associations, the big lunch and any attempt to build local community very interfering.
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