Annual Sydney Goth Picnic

A guide to the Annual Sydney Goth Picnic

It is incredible to think that we have been gathering for an annual goth picnic for 14 years, in this time I am proud to think that our little community has grown and has been frequented by quality people and that we have so many happy memories to look back on.

As an event organiser this time of the year is often one of reflection and retrospection; how can I make the event better, how do I reach out to more people and avoid the “leg-humper” and troll problem, how can I grow the event and keep the space safe for everyone? Also how can I make newcomers feel at ease when attending?

I thought that I could at least tackle that last question while I continue to mull over the rest.

Vibes

The Annual Sydney Goth Picnic is a rather low key event with a matching chill vibe. People tend to be pretty easy going and welcoming. Its easy to strike up conversations and meet new people but there is zero pressure to do that, you can just turn up with your friends and a picnic rug and join the picnic.

Dress Code

Some people choose to go all out for the picnic and put on their finest outfits dressed to the nines, others just turn up in their comfiest black jeans and favourite band shirt and either of those options or anything in between is absolutely acceptable and fine. You can be as casual or formal as you like.

What to bring

Basically something comfortable to sit on and something to eat or drink and if you feel generous some food to share. Being sun smart is also recommended so bring things to do the slip, slop, slap, wrap.

Etiquette

Basically don’t be a jerk or creep. Be respectful of others feelings, space and boundaries. Have common courtesy and ask people if you can photograph them. This picnic is family friendly, so keep it all PG13 and Safe for Work. Also please pick up after yourselves, we may stan The Mission’s Wasteland but that doesn’t mean we leave one behind.

Issues?

Come find me and let me know if someone is being rude, creepy or otherwise making you uncomfortable. As event organiser it is on me to ensure that everyone is safe at an event that I run and to resolve things where possible. Even if I look busy, come and interrupt me, its no problem.

I hope that this post has given you some idea of what to expect at our little annual gathering dear reader and we hope to see you at the picnic soon!

Keeping the scene safe

As the thirteenth Annual Goth Picnic approaches, I am once again reminded of how important it is to foster a scene which is safe for all to attend. This picnic in particular has always been family friendly and designed to be accessible to all goths and their friends however opening up the event to more people comes with the risk of certain undesirables from coming in.

It is an unfortunate reality that predators, sex pests, racists and bullies exist within every single community in our society and the Goth scene is no different. Each year the list of blacklisted names I have grows as more and more people come to me as an event organiser to tell me of someone who has hurt them egregiously. I am happy to hear the complainants out as sadly not enough is being done to shut known predators out of the scene. Frankly, I’m sickened every time I see that a known abuser’s band has been booked again or that a sex pest DJ is once again spinning records on a dance floor.

If they are known to be bad people then why are they allowed to keep preforming at and attend events? Mostly because like all predators they can be charming and popular until of course they are not. They cultivate a vibe of affability and they have friends who vouch for them (you know the whole “oh but they’re wonderful with me, they never hurt me” apologists), so they stay in the community and continue hurting people.

The Annual Sydney Goth Picnic has a zero tolerance approach to sex pests, abusers, racists and bullies. This is to keep the scene safe and foster it’s growth. Many times I’ve heard from young Goths that say they no longer will go out to events because some leach was watching them the entire time, I’ve heard from LGBT+ Goths who tell me that they don’t feel safe at Goth clubs because of how they were objectified, and from Goths of colour who don’t feel welcome because unfortunately there are people in the scene who wrongly think that Goth is only for white people.

Predatory people are destroying our scene, therefore as event organisers we have a responsibility to shut them out. We have a responsibility to keep people safe, particularly young and vulnerable people, at events.

So now the challenge for us here is as follows, we want to grow our little picnic but we also need to keep our community safe from predatory types inside the scene and trolls and “goth girl” fetishists who try to infiltrate our events. I don’t exactly know what the answer is, but it might include becoming more official and using ticketing services to have a record of names we can refer to so we can turn people away in advance.

In any case, we will continue to strive to make the Goth scene safe.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Goth-mas!

Last Saturday there was such an excellent turn out at Sanctuary (a real great Goth night out, if you’ve not been I highly recommend attending) and seeing all the happy faces in photos across the socials as well as feeling that spring weather come through reminds me that not only are we approaching Spooky Season and Halloween (Goth-mas) but also picnic time!

We’ve got a very Gothy weekend in the works for this weekend, with our Monthly Pub Meet Up on the Friday night (23/09) and then the 12th Annual Sydney Goth Picnic on Sunday (25/09) from 1pm onwards. If you’d like to attend either event drop us a line, the more merrier (or gloomier in this case).

Additionally, October is going to be absolutely jam packed with Goth events to go to each weekend and of course the iconic Sisters of Mercy coming to play for Halloween!

It’s a properly exciting time to be a Goth on Eora country (Sydney) at the moment!

From Goth Picnics to Goth Pub Gatherings

At our last picnic a long time member of our group and scene said, “You know what would be really popular? A regular pub meet up.” Because our events have always been family friendly and a safe space for minors in the Sydney Goth scene to hang out and socialise I’d not even considered it, so I put it to the group and after much discussion and searching for venues which could be family friendly and easily accessible we put it to a vote and had our first Monthly Goth Pub Meet Up in July.

It was so well received that we did it again in August and it doesn’t look like we’re stopping any time soon! It feels so good to finally get events and things happening for the scene again after the difficulty we had with the pandemic. Hopefully this means that us bats don’t have to return to the bell tower any time soon.

If you’d like to join us at our events, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can point you in the right direction.

Staying connected during the pandemic

About six or seven weeks ago (unsure, I’ve lost all concept of time) much of Sydney was placed in lockdown in an effort to stop the delta strain in it’s tracks, however for a variety of reasons which we will not get into here the lockdown has been extended for at least another month but the truth is we don’t actually know how far away we are from seeing each other in person again.

It’s been a lonely and frustrating time and if mostly shy introverted folks like myself are starting to struggle with the lack of human interaction just imagine the extroverts among us!

On Wednesday, 4th of August we had our first Zoom (or should I say “gloom”) session and it went so well that are going to do it again on a fortnightly basis to keep in touch and keep that cabin fever and epic sad at bay.

At this stage it is unsure if our Annual Picnic will go ahead during September but as soon as those lockdown restrictions are lifted we will make a plan to get together and have a proper meet up.

Stay safe out there during these frankly rather frightening times and don’t be afraid to reach out if you are in need of some cheer and community.

Covid19 cancels our first buy/swap/sell

One of the most challenging things about planning events during a pandemic is the delicate balance between creating hype and being ready to can or postpone it due to restrictions.

This week we were told that Eora (Sydney) would get new restrictions after a man infected with covid went all over town on a quest to find the right BBQ; or at least that’s what we can surmise. Additionally the inner west area is on alert due to covid in the sewage.

In light of this we thought it best then that our first ever Buy/Swap/Sell be postponed to the 29th of May.

Just because we’re over the pandemic doesn’t mean it’s over and the safety of our community comes first. Does it suck that the event is postponed? Yes. But would it suck more if we flouted the restrictions and ended up spreading the virus? Major yes.

Hope to see you all happy, safe and well at our next event; the World Goth Day Dinner which is still going ahead at this point.

What is the Annual Sydney Goth Picnic?

Hi there, welcome to the first post on this site!

The Annual Sydney Goth Picnic started one fateful afternoon in 2011 after a discussion on The Australian Gothic Society Facebook group. Several underage goths in the group were lamenting how there were no more events in Eora (Sydney) that they could attend since the Under The Blue Moon festival was no longer running and clubs and gigs were inaccessible to them.

The idea then arose to have a picnic in September when the weather was better and we went from there. It was an unprecedented success! Almost 80 people came all decked out to the home of goth in Eora country; Newtown for the picnic. It was a great day where many new friendships were made and old friendships rekindled; people brought their pets and kids along and many stayed till way after dark.

Since then we have had a picnic every year except for 2020 due to Covid and the concern for the most vulnerable in our community (which we made up for this February). We cannot wait for our next picnic but in the meantime we are looking forward to our first ever buy/swap/sell this May!

Big love fellow goths. Stay safe and hope to see you all out there soon.