The Big Lunch street parties from London to Glasgow

July 20, 2009

A nationwide event, organised by the Eden Project, intended to promote neighbourly friendship, took place yesterday and the bad weather failed to dampen the spirits of the partygoers.

From Regent’s Park in London, to Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park and many local street and parks in between, people came out of their houses to eat Sunday lunch with their neighbours.

The idea was the concept of Eden Project founders Paul Twivy and Tim Smit who see The Big Lunch as encouraging ‘human warming.’ At many of the events people set up trestle tables and decorated the dining areas with streamers and bunting – harking back to the British street party traditions, which were last seen in 2002 for the Queen’s jubiliee.

Smit says that the idea of the event is simply to encourage people to get to know their neighbours and share some food. Many event organisers brought along catering vans to dish out delicious food from all over the world, while others humbly ate from tupperware dishes or brought picnics to share with neighbours.

Smit explained, “the greatest things in life are simple and great memories are usually made of things we do ourselves. So, all we want is for people to get out on their street, raise a glass and share a bite with their neighbours — that’s The Big Lunch.”