advice for cantilever on temporary, free-standing wood structure

Question

My daughter wants a piñata at her 6th birthday party. Unfortunately our back yard has no convenient tree limbs or other ways to hang the piñata, so I want to DIY something to hang it from. I'd prefer to avoid driving posts into the ground, so want something freestanding.

I have lots of extra 2x4s in the basement I can use to build it, but I'm not sure about the shape and size of the structure needed.

What's an easy structure to build that won't fall over when a kid whacks the piñata, but also provides lots of room underneath the pinata for kids to whack the thing and dive for the loot afterwards without hurting themselves on a misplaced chunk of knotty pine?

To make it easy for kids to walk up and whack the piñata, and to avoid injuries when the kids scramble for the loot when the thing breaks, I am assuming that the most important design requirement is that the piñata hanger has to cantilever out over a large empty space.

This led to this idea:

Assuming the long pieces are 5-6 feet long, will this design be reasonably stable? Any suggestions about proportions/bracing, etc? Is there a better design that's about as easy to build?

Answer 1

If it were me, I would erect two posts a fair distance apart at the edges of the yard and run a clothesline or other sturdy line across from their tops.

The posts can be put in holes dug into the ground for semi/permanent use, and/or staked with ties. I would not attempt to make a base to hold the posts up because the leverage of a top line is so high there is always the potential of pulling the posts down.