Teddy bear picnic set for Mullumbimby showground

MULLUMBIMBY will host a family friendly celebration this weekend as Spaghetti Circus teams up with the Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce to welcome children and their teddy bears to the showground.

Spaghetti Circus, the town’s community circus school, will lead kids through a juggling, balancing and tumbling circuit, as well as an acro balance sequence, with the aim of incorporating teddy bears into many of the activities.

The event will also feature a performance by the Spaghetti Circus Emerging Artists, as well as a treasure hunt, a raffle draw and colouring in prize announcement, and a picnic under the trees.

he Brunswick Valley Historical Society will be present on the day, inviting locals to bring a teddy bear and share its story.

These bears will then be incorporated into a broader display at the Mullumbimby Museum that will run for several weeks.

Brunswick Valley Historical Society treasurer Susan Tsicalas is encouraging families to consider lending their teddy bears to the museum.

“I will be at the teddy bear picnic, putting it out there that if you lend your teddy bear to the museum, we will take tender care of it,” she said.

“We will also ask for its story, because we like to tell a story with everything that we have here at the museum,” she said.

For Tsicalas, a display of this kind will focus on nostalgia, family history and cherished memories.

“Teddy bears are something that are handed down through families,” she said.

“Most people get them when they’re really young and hang on to them and then they are discarded, but then a bit later on they become nostalgic.”

The collection will be an eclectic mix, featuring teddy bears with both local and international origins.

“The police and the fire brigade have both donated a teddy bear,” Tsicalas said.

“But we’ve also been given a Dougal Bear from the Relay For Life that was done up as a hippie.”

Visitors can expect to see bears gathered from across the globe.

“People are bringing in teddy bears that they have collected from travels all over the world,” she said.

The Teddy Bears’ Picnic Community Day is a free event that will run from 1.30pm at the Mullumbimby Showground on March 28.