In July 1973, Rodney Scheel's first bar, the Back Door, held an employee/customer appreciation party in 1973. The event was very popular and began to raise money which Scheel wanted to go toward the city's various LGBT organizations. So in 1977 the annual picnic became a city-wide fundraiser for Madison LGBT organizations known as the MAGIC Picnic. (MAGIC was an acronym for 'Madison Area Gay Interim Committee'.)

The MAGIC picnic ran at least into the early 2000's.