SOUTH Gloucestershire residents are being invited to sign up for this year's Big Lunch, the UK’s biggest annual get-together for neighbours.

It is less than 100 days to go until the Big Lunch 2014 and the Eden Project, which started the initiative in 2009, is calling on locals to join the thousands of communities across the UK who will be holding local events and street parties on Sunday, June 1.

Now in its sixth year, the simple idea for the Big Lunch is to provide neighbours with an opportunity to get to know one another better.

Alexandra Womack, one of the organisers of a Big Lunch in Chipping Sodbury, said: “We first got involved in 2012 for the Big Jubilee Lunch and were overwhelmed by the amount of people who told us that the event gave them the chance to get to know other residents they had never met before.

“Last year more than 3,000 people took part and plans are already coming together for this year’s Big Lunch with a 1940s theme to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings.

"There will be lots of vintage touches and we will be collecting people’s memories of WWII to create a big display and weave them into storytelling on the day.”

In 2013 more than 3.65 million people took part in Big Lunches across the UK, including thousands from Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire.

Sir Tim Smit KBE, founding director of the Eden Project and co-founder of The Big Lunch, said: “We wanted to create the excuse for each of us to get over the shyness of knocking on a neighbour’s door for a street party and it seems

"The Big Lunch is exactly what millions of people in thousands of communities have been waiting for. The genius of The Big Lunch lies in all those wonderful people who go out and make it their event, each one is different but they share the same instinct to make our neighbourhoods friendlier to live in.

"Every time I hear about the clubs, activities and projects ‘Big Lunchers’ engage in after getting to know each other, I become ever more committed to making The Big Lunch bigger than ever.

“So why not join in and show the rest of the UK just how friendly communities in Bristol are."

Request a free pack or for more information visit www.thebiglunch.com

For further details on this year's Chipping Sodbury Big Lunch go to http://www.mysodbury.co.uk/sodbury/whats_on/sodbury_celebrates or https://www.facebook.com/events/1402651356654525/