Picnic (band)

Picnic (Russian: Пикник), or Piknik, is a Russian rock band known for its unique style, a mixture of art rock, progressive rock and original Russian rock. The band was formed in 1978 in Leningrad, though the members consider the band's official starting point to be Edmund Shklyarsky's arrival, in 1981, or the year the first album was recorded—1982.

Some of their early songs are in Polish, due to Shklyarsky's paternal heritage.

In 2016, the band was barred from playing in Ukraine due to their performance in Crimea after it was annexed by Russia.

Music critic Andrei Burlaka notes the group as a cult phenomenon in Russian rock music.

Picnic were set to perform at the Crocus City Hall on 22 March 2024 before a terrorist attack took place there, killing 145 people. On the afternoon of 24 March, it became known that Ekaterina Kushner, the assistant to the director of the group, had died in the attack.