The phrase "a friendly gathering" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an informal event where people come together in a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere.
Example: "We are hosting a friendly gathering at our house this Saturday, and everyone is invited to join us for food and conversation."
Alternatives: "a casual get-together" or "a warm meeting".
By early afternoon there is a friendly gathering of four men, talking and watching the races.
The Scene Ursula's Diner is a friendly gathering place across from a waterfront park and boat launching area.
Mr. Avery was a bohemian fixture in the neighborhood, the soul of a friendly gathering place where artists, kids and musicians traded books and gossip.
After all, the moderator at a small roundtable held recently by several North Jersey business leaders -- a friendly gathering for a Republican candidate if there ever was one -- wanted to know how State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr. planned to sell himself to Democratic voters in this year's United States Senate race.
This custom baffles even us...recommends a Lions-type lunch to the members of the Security Council - a friendly gathering with a couple of songs and a little horseplay, vest and maybe even coats off in the manner of men who are relaxin from a hard job being done under difficult atmospheric conditions.
You're at a friendly gathering, slowing removing yourself from the crowd to take care of personal business in the restroom.
If it is a relaxed, friendly gathering, your platter will be simpler than for a formal party.
The sun shines, streets run red with vitamin C and the celebrations are non stop until the pistol fires once more to signal a close to the friendly gathering of tomato flinging.
A remarkably peaceful and genuinely friendly gathering of what Joy Wallis, naming what so many of us also felt, called "my people... my tribe".
But just about every family or friendly gathering yields a joke from someone who must think they're the first to make it.
"You would think that a party with scientists and their wives would be a friendly, safe gathering," Dr. Landis said.
