Such a great Rivendell picnic!

We couldn’t have had a better day for our picnic at Rivendell on Saturday 15 December 2018. It was warm and sunny.

There were 22 of us - a really decent turnout. I took the costumes from the Fan Museum so people could choose their character for the day - and some people came already in costume! It took a while to get kitted out, but by 11 we were ready. Jack led us on a beautiful forest walk - it is supposed to be about 30 mins, but once you start getting characters to pose for photos, and have a lot of laughs, it takes quite a bit longer.

There was a great mood of fun and laughter, and it was a joy to be there. The forest was really beautiful - just like Rivendell! We were so, so in the ZONE!

There were some tour groups and other people out enjoying the forest walk as well. They were very surprised to see Rivendell come to life with characters from Tolkien. People were smiling and pointing. Most were shy, but some wanted selfies with us. Tour group folk probably thought that it was a regular thing to find LOTR characters there. I was in costume as Gandalf and he certainly attracted quite a bit of attention - one person commented “Dumbledore” but Gandalf soon put him right!

We enjoyed a great shared picnic lunch, and then headed off for a few photos on the Rivendell 5-minute loop with the elven archway. Again with the selfies …

You should have been there! It was a simply perfect, fun day. There’s more costumes that weren’t used, so come along next year.