A Toronto woman is planning one of the biggest events in the city this summer, in an effort to bring strangers together through community and food.
Toronto content creator Winnie Chen hit record one day in May to ask the local TikTokverse if they’d be interested in coming together for a picnic.
What started out as something completely spontaneous quickly grew into hundreds of thousands of internet users jumping at the idea, many yearning for connection in the city.
Thus, with the guidance of a few helpful local event organizers, Chen created The Great Picnic: a gathering intended for strangers to meet, make friends, and simply be amongst others, some for the first time in a very long time.
Chen says the idea came from the hardships of navigating a post-pandemic world, where the world was at a standstill, making it especially difficult to foster community connections.
“People who graduated in COVID, or started school in COVID, they are just so used to having a black screen… they feel disconnected, and maybe they lack the part where they’re supposed to learn how to socialize in first or second year,” she explained to Now Toronto on Monday.
“And so coming out of COVID, I feel like everyone’s just lost two years, and so they’re just looking for a way to connect again.”
A picnic with nothing but a blanket and snack foods was one of the easiest ways to connect in a natural setting, Chen says, as opposed to a networking event where one may feel forced to dress up and present a different version of themselves.
“This is a very relaxed way of meeting people, and it’s not very fancy at all,” Chen stressed.
About 2,000 locals are expected to take over Centennial Park at Exhibition Place on July 5, where attendees can look forward to supporting tons of small homegrown businesses too. Live DJs, yoga sessions, volleyball nets, as well as a gardening workshop by Pansy and Potts and Henna designs by Shafaq Ihtesham are just a few of the offerings The Great Picnic has in store.
Looking ahead, Chen has hopes of making The Great Picnic an annual affair and aims to fund more future community activities through her clothing brand, unistyl.
Until then, she looks forward to making some new friends and hoping that others will do the same.
“I want people to feel a little less lonely,” she stressed.
“I want people to feel more connected with Toronto. I want them to feel like they have a sense of community and they’re not alone in such a big city.”
