The Peninsula Picnic is one of the Mornington Peninsula’s premier family friendly food, wine and music festivals and we were excited to attend both the 2017 and 2018 events.
Our first introduction to live music with the kids was The Lost Lands which was awesome. So we were keen to experience more live music events.
The Peninsula Picnic
The event was held at the Mornington Racecourse and Mornington is an easy hours drive from Melbourne.
The Peninsula Picnic is a day event which makes is super family friendly – gates open at 11.30am and the event finishes at 6.45pm. There is parking available on site.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day weather wise for the 2017 event – we had a few storm clouds pass over on our drive down to Mornington and we had a couple of light showers when we arrived but then the sun came out for the rest of the afternoon. It was actually quite hot for the 2018 event but there was plenty of shade available over near the kids and market area.
We were super excited in 2017 to be seeing The Cat Empire! Plus, Bob Evans and new music for us All Our Exes Live in Texas and Nyck and Harrison Storm.
Jon Butler Trio was the main act for 2018. So much fun!
The grounds and stage
Not only was there fantastic music (The Cat Empire and John Butler both went OFF!!!!) there was a wine education tent to hear and learn from some of the Peninsula’s wine experts including Montalto, T’Gallant and Polperro. There were various bars open with different Mornington Peninsula Wines for sale.
Of course there was amazing food to enjoy alongside your wine with the chef’s from the likes of Red Hill Estate, Merricks General Store, Montalto, Green Olive, D.O.C and the Flinders Hotel among others. The menu is available on the website before the event so you are able to decide beforehand what you might like to sample (or just get your taste buds excited!).
Delicious food
More delicious food
The queues were actually quite long and some of the food items did run out quite early so try not to leave your food sampling until the end of the picnic like we did. The picnic does finish at 6.45pm which is past dinner time for our kids – so make sure you pack enough picnic food that includes lunch and dinner if it’s going to be too late for your little ones to eat once you leave the picnic.
You are allowed to pack your own picnic food and utensils. Wine glasses are not allowed but branded goblets are available for purchase (I still use mine at home!). Picnic rugs and low backed chairs are fine to set up anywhere, if you have higher camping style chairs you will need to set up at the back. This is a all weather event so come prepared – hats and sunscreen or gumboots and rain jackets!
The Peninsula Picnic is definitely a family friendly event with a fantastic kids corner to enjoy between the music sets. Olive had pony ride! There was also face painting, craft activities and small carnival rides including a tea cup. If this wasn’t enough to keep you entertained then there was also lawn games to enjoy including boules and croquet.
The kids enjoying the Tea cups at Peninsula Picnic
Ned burning off some energy!
If the kids (or big kids with a sweet tooth – yes, that’s you Ross!) needed further encouragement that this is a super doper awesome event then look no further than ‘Sweets Lane’ – oh my goodness from ice cream to doughnuts to popcorn – all high end beautiful, quality local produce.
Dotted around the picnic there were various stalls set up with local Peninsula market items including clothing, cheese, olive oil and homewares. If only I had more time to check out these stalls in more detail – next time for sure.
The Peninsula Picnic was definitely a fantastically family friendly music event and I am so pleased that we were able to attend and we are very much looking forward to future events as we would love to attend once again. For information and to buy tickets click here.
Have you attended any previous events? What did you think? Please let me know in the comments below.
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