Giant Picnic 2012 Sunday 26th August 11am - 3pm

Herne Bay in Bloom are very fortunate to have secured funding courtesy of Herne Bay KCC Councillors supplemented by Herne Bay Rotary Club to once again organise this marvellous family event in our regenerated Memorial Park.

There will be many FREE activities for all the family provided by 30+ voluntary organisations ranging from creating your own piece of art,playing rounders,singing along with a rock choir, seeing how high you can jump and how fast you can run and planting Mr Cress Heads to making heart cushions for breast cancer patients. In fact something for everyone!

Live music from U'Zambesi, Jezreels Ceilidh Band and  a display from Da Vinci Dance all compered by local musician David Shepherd will really get the party going.

So bring a picnic and all the family and tell all your friends to come along to enjoy an absolutely fantastic day.

We are grateful for the support of all our sponsors  including  KCC, Herne Bay Rotary, Herne Bay Town Partners, Canterbury City Council Festival personnel and "People United" charity for enabling us to help make Herne Bay a better place.

Here's what happened last year...

Giant Picnic in the Park

This year Herne Bay in Bloom were the main organisers of this community event based in the town's Memorial Park which was facilitated by a generous award from the Heritage Lottery Fund . People United (last year's organiser) and Canterbury City Council Festival personnel also provided practical support and advice both in the planning and on the day.

Over 20 community organisations attended contributing many different activities. The weather was generally kind interspersed with only two short sharp showers but the sunshine and lovely atmosphere definitely reflected the overall feel-good factor of the day.

Many families came  to enjoy the live entertainment and free activities as well as their own picnics and it was brilliant to see so many people genuinely enjoying themselves.

Amongst the comments received were:

"It's a great opportunity for all the community to get together"

"The music and Samba Band were my favourite"

"We have met people who we haven't seen for ages"

"We would definitely come back with our friends next year"

Learning and design

Parks and open spaces present an opportunity for people to grow too. We are now starting to work with a range of education and training organisations to deliver design and small to medium scale projects.

These organisations include Canterbury College, Appleseed Landscapes (under the umbrella of Kent Enterprise Trust) and Family Investment Homes. The colleges are major local employers and providers of future gardeners, and cater for students with a wide range of abilities including learning difficulties.

In particular they will be working on projects in Herne Bay Memorial Park and at Hampton play area landscaping an area of untidy ground, next to the recently refurbished Play Area.