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PanEuropean Picnic Redux: presented by Extremely Hungary and Pen World Voices Festival
Empire Fulton Ferry Park, DUMBO
05/03/2009
1:00-3:00PM

Extremely Hungary Festival
together with the PEN World Voices Festival and the Austrian Cultural Forum
present:

PAN-EUROPEAN PICNIC REDUX
PÁNEURÓPAI PIKNIK REDUX
PANEUROPÄISCHES PICKNICK REDUX

This is one of seven events commissioned by the Extremely Hungary Festival.

Click here to download the Pan-European Picnic Redux newspaper/pamphlet.

Pack your picnic basket and blanket and take the family to Empire-Fulton
Ferry State Park in DUMBO to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the
Pan-European Picnic, the seminal event at the Austrian-Hungarian border
that helped bring down the Berlin Wall and end communism in Europe.
We will be having the picnic rain or shine. A tent will be provided
Host
K. Anthony Appiah, President, PEN American Center

Speakers:
Michael R. Meyer, Newsweek's Eastern Europe correspondent in 1989,
author of the upcoming "The Year that Changed the World"
Eszter Babarczy, historian and journalist, professor of media & culture
at Moholy-Nagy University of Arts
Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof, journalist, Editor-in-Chief Dept. Foreign
Policy, Profil magazine
Alexander Wind, original Picnic organizer, former Middle School director
of St. Margarethen

Live Music by
Hungry March Band
János Másik

Sunday, May 3, 2009
1:00–3:00pm
Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in DUMBO, Brooklyn (between the Manhattan
and Brooklyn Bridges)
Enter on Main and Plymouth Streets
By Subway: "A" or "C" Trains to High Street, or "F" Train to York
Street, 2/3 to Clark Street

Free and open to the public

For more information: www.extremelyhungary.org or (212) 750-4450,
www.pen.org

Tent is provided in case of rain.

In collaboration with the Open Society Archive, the NYS Office of Parks,
Recreation and Historic Preservation, and Two Trees.

Food sponsored by The International Culinary Center—home of The French
Culinary Institute and by Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar

ABOUT THE PAN-EUROPEAN PICNIC
On August 19, 1989, an unusual picnic took place. A group of Hungarian
intellectuals and youth organizations, along with the Pan-European
Union, organized a peaceful demonstration on the border between the
Hungarian town of Sopronpuszta and the Austrian town of St. Margarethen.

In 1989, Hungary was behind the so-called Iron Curtain, the physical and
ideological wall that separated them–and the Eastern half of Europe–
from the rest of democratic Europe. Simply traveling to a country like
Austria was difficult and required special permission. Living there was
almost impossible.

To emphasize the message of a new world without borders, the Austrian
and Hungarian governments were convinced to symbolically open their own
borders for a few hours. Invitations, maps, flyers, and press releases
invited Hungarians and Austrians to the picnic. Less officially, East
Germans visiting Hungary were also invited to the event.

Thousands of people showed up, and the open fields became a mass
celebration of food, drink, and freedom. Picnickers were encouraged to
take home bits of the barbed wire gate that separated the two
countries–the “iron curtain”–dismantling the border little by little. At
the same time, hundreds of East Germans took the opportunity to cross
through the border while guards stood idly by. In the weeks after,
thousands more followed. What began as an idea hatched at a dinner
became a seminal chapter in the demolition of the Iron Curtain: the
Pan-European Picnic.