This Saturday, August 12th, Piebird Farm Sanctuary & Vegan Farmstay in Nipissing Village is hosting their annual Picnic Garden Concert.
This year’s Picnic is extra special because it also celebrates Piebird’s 12th anniversary.
“The Picnic is a mini-music festival of peace and positive community. The gardens are peopled with picnickers and the bands are surrounded by families dancing in the grass. Lots of families come to the picnic," explains Sherry Milford who operates Piebird with her partner Yan, "building community means mixing generations. Music and food do that, they bring us together in memorable ways.”
Headlining this year’s Picnic is the roots band Mapstone, a tribe of peace-bearing merry-makers from Australia. Mapstone's conscious-roots sound is music for the heart and from the heart. Also playing is Jsun, with mellow reggae rhythms and a positive message of unity and love.
"The bands this year are perfect for bringing joy to the day," explains Yan. "With djembes and didgeridoos, the instrumentation has so much life. It’s not spectator kind of music, it’s participatory. And the positive intention of what they sing about really brings out the message of Piebird. Piebird is a place of Peace.”
Twelve years ago Piebird emerged as a vegan agri-tourism destination and in recent years grew into becoming a farm sanctuary as well. “In the local food scene, twelve years makes us a longtime voice in the food revolution,” says Yan.
"To prevent that local scene from plateauing, it was important to us to grow into also becoming a respected voice for animal liberation, and to effectively advocate for all animal-persons. Piebird is simply about inviting people to invite peace into their lives.
"We've been overjoyed for these past twelve years to see the community blossom and we're lucky enough to have our Piebird endeavours supported: growing food, loving animals, cherishing the Earth, thwarting uncouthness and having fun! The Picnic is a chance to celebrate all of that and enjoy peace in a special place by dancing on the earth with happy people.”
Like all things at Piebird, their Picnic Garden Concert is intentionally simple and intentionally small. "Arts and entrepreneurial sustainability are as important to us as our focus which is environmental, food and lifestyle sustainability," says Sherry.
"The touring musicians we bring in are 100% audience funded rather than us getting grants to pay them, that makes this a real community-built experience. Plus it's in an atmosphere that can be way more intimate with the musicians than a regular concert setting. The only thing between you and the band is flowers."
