Everyone was welcome at the Eden Project's Big Lunch this week – including Brutus the Triceratops. The giant plant-eating dinosaur joined families, staff and supporters in the Rainforest Biome to launch a weekend of friendship, food, fun and action as The Big Lunch and The Big Help Out get underway from 5–8 June across the UK.
The tropical rainforest Big Lunch was designed to welcome Brutus and make him feel at home, celebrating the simple idea at the heart of The Big Lunch, that everyone is welcome at the table. This was followed by the launch of the first Eden Project Flower Count. Three-year-old William and four-year-old Reed helped feed Brutus giant leaves and a flower-topped cake specially created for the occasion. As a vegetarian dinosaur, Brutus enjoyed the plant-based treats as guests came together to share food, friendship and fun.
Brutus, from Dinosaur World Live, may already be familiar to some Eden followers. Last month, he and his friends sparked widespread speculation after reports that movement sensors in the Rainforest Biome had been triggered by something not matching any known species housed there. The mystery was later revealed to be Brutus and his dinosaur friends, who will return to Eden as part of this summer's dinosaur experience running from 25 July to 6 September.
The celebrations then moved outdoors, where two of Brutus's smaller dinosaur friends helped launch the first-ever Eden Project Flower Count. Joined by staff and children, including Reed and William, they recorded flowers in bloom as part of a new annual citizen science project.
The Eden Project Flower Count aims to build a long-term picture of how climate change and weather patterns may be affecting flowering times across Eden's outdoor gardens. By recording what is flowering each year, Eden hopes to create a valuable record that can help track changes over time.
The event marks the start of a special weekend of community action at the Eden Project, where visitors are invited to swap their entry fee for hands-on volunteering activities as part of The Big Lunch and The Big Help Out weekend.
Activities include pollinator tracking, bug hotel building, planting with Eden's horticulture team, pot making, sunflower seed planting, kindness card making and taking part in the Flower Count. Visitors who pre-book onto a volunteering activity will receive free entry to Eden for the day and be invited to enjoy a Cornish pasty Big Lunch, bringing together visitors, volunteers and staff to share food, friendship and conversation. Places are limited and advance booking is essential
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