Picnic People

«If you are looking for a catering company who will offer you professional service, wonderful food, fun activities, and the most enjoyable people to work with than I would highly recommend calling the Picnic People! Our company has used them for several years, most recently for an Employee’s Retirement Party. Jesse Williams and his Team were fantastic, as always». Bob’s Crane Service

I recently hired these guys to run a client appreciation picnic at Mission Bay and can tell you that I’ll never hire them again!
I hired them at their exhorbinant rate so my team I didn’t have to worry about anything other than entertaining our clients. I was severely disappointed with what we got for our money.
Pros: They had everything setup on time and the food was good (which earned them a second star).
Cons: Other than setting things up, they did very little. The games they setup were games I could have bought at Wal Mart for $ 20/​ea (ladder golf, volleyball and bean bag toss). They setup a bounce house (which deflated multiple times cause the bonehead «attendant» had no idea what she was doing) which I could have rented for $ 100 bucks and a couple games for the kids.
There was nobody running the event in any way, shape or form. People were left to their own imagination as to what to do with what had been setup. There was no MC announcements of upcoming games or contests, no attempts to get people involved or having fun, it was really disappointing.
For the thousands of dollars I spent, I expected someone to throw us an awesome party, instead we got a backyard BBQ. In my opinion, I paid quadruple what I should have for what we got!

I attended the fanfest at the holiday bowl. The food was great but the setup was horrendous. To have only 8 tables with chairs for so many people was unacceptable. I have had back surgery. We were at the front end of the line and the tables were of course gone. We attended this event with people who have gone for years and they said that they were done. They will be tailgating in the parking lot from now on. Dave your money and do the same.

Picnic people are awesome. They did a beautiful job on my picnic and were professional and cooperative. Kandiss was a joy to work with. She wanted us to have the best experience and she made it happen. Thank you Picnic People and thank you Kandiss!!!

really poor operation food not ready people lined up waiting poor quality components overly spiced and the kerosene flavor to the burgers

Thank you Picnic People for providing our company with such an amazing annual picnic this past weekend! We worked with Blake and Ashley for our picnic at Crown Point and everything went as smoothly as we could have hoped. We wanted to keep it super simple and fun for all ages. The buffet was terrific, the kids had a blast with the combo bouncer/​slide, face painter and piñata bust. We also had volleyball and a beer garden to entertain the adults!
I must give an extra special shout out to our game master, Miguel!!! His energy and excitement really made the activities of the day so AWESOME!!! He was polite, fun and very upbeat! He is a gem of the Picnic People!!!
THANK SO MUCH!!!

Recently experience Picnic People at my company’s summer party. I suppose they were a reasonable choice for the company, since they provide all-​in-​one service (food/​drinks, games/​entertainment, check-​in service/​wristbands), but the experience was pretty awful in my opinion on a number of counts:
1. Food and beverage selection. Pre-​made food consisted of pasta salad, pulled pork, and hot-​dogs. Three 6-​ft grills were blazing, each manned by 2 – 3 staff, but all that was being cooked fresh was chicken wings and veggie selection. The pulled pork was a nice addition, but why not cook the hot dogs on the grill? Also, WHERE ARE THE HAMBURGERS? I put some pulled pork on my plate, and decided to skip the hot dog and pasta salad, both of which looked like they were made in a factory in Taiwan, and wanted to get a veggie burger and pretend it was a hamburger. THEY WOULDN’T GIVE ME A VEGGIE BURGER.. . «we’d like to save our veggie selections for our vegetarian guests.» I didn’t fight it, but was secretly outraged. Next to get a drink: they had lemonade, unsweetened iced tea, and two types of beer. No soda. It’s a kid’s event, starting at noon.. . who’s drinking beer? I can’t remember being at an event since the ’80’s that didn’t serve Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi.
2. Bad food. The food quality was not good, not unexpected for a party like this, but since there were only like two or three dishes they offered, you’d think they’d do a better job.
3. Apathetic staff. My wife and I arrived at 12:15 (advertised start time was 12). The front table did not have wristbands ready at that time, so we ended up looking like gate-​crashers for the entire event. We tried to play a few games and after being lazily guided through the game, we were told that the tickets weren’t «here» yet, so we couldn’t actually play. The hot dogs, pulled pork, and pasta salad were ready though, oh yeah, they’d probably been sitting in the humid tent since 8 am. There were exceptions: the guy emcee’ing the kids area was lively and proactive. The steel drum band was cheesy but they get an A for effort.
The next time I’m invited to a Picnic People event, I’m likely to decline. Also, I’ve already notified my HR department not to hire these guys next year. My apologies to the kid’s emcee and steel drum band — you guys need to motivate your colleagues if you want the good business that you deserve!

Our company had their 2011 Summer Picnic in Carlsbad, CA and let me say the Picnic People went above and beyond what we could of asked for.
From arriving on time, to introducing me (the planner) to each and every staff member they had, to the kids games, face painting, boucy house and amazing food selections, I can’t wait to use this company again.
The Picnic People made me enjoy my time with my son, while they made sure every person was enjoying themself. If you want to plan a company event and enjoy it with out working it hire the Picnic People.
I would also like to extend a special thank you to Blake Richards, and his amazing staff for making our event a successful one. We received tons of positive feedback from our employee’s on a job well done!!!
Thank you Picnic People, I can’t wait to work with you again…
Kellyanne Sandru
MaxLinear Inc.

My company hired these people for the third year. Every year it gets worse and worse. They run out of food quickly. Waiting in lines for food and activities is like waiting at the DMV. They hire a lot of people, but most are just standing around. The only good thing is they seem to be good with kids, which I don’t have. If we hire them for event full of 300 people, then they should provide enough food for that many. How can they run out of food halfway thru a 4 hour party?

The picnic experts did an event for us today and it was a blast. They were super professional, on time, & the food was great. I recommend the Kahlua pork or the BBQ brisket. Both were very tasty.
Along with them being setup on time and the food being tasty, they also had a plethora of fun games & game infrastructure. They came through with some cornhole boards, ladder ball, volleyball net, & 2 enlarged tri-​cycles. From little kids to adults, the games were a hit.
Thanks Picnic People… You made our event for Mothers Day very easy to do. Without them, there would have been a ton more work on us — the kids :)