Photos and observations from the coolest vegan festival in the UK
I heard about the Vegan Fayre from Ali and thought that it would be something that Minkbaby should pop along to, so i popped. Well i popped, after going to the Brighton Dome finding out the Vegan fest wasnt there and then arriving at the Brighton Centre to find a half naked guy attempting to swallow a pretty big sword. Sorry i didnt take a photo of it, but heres an empty entrance hall and a shiney floor.
The main hall was up stairs and bustling with stalls catering to all kinds of colourful veggies and vegans. They were walking around talking and bustling, ??I mentioned the bustling right?? Buy mostly they were looking for Vegan cheese, an obsession I too have felt drawn too. So off I set across to the far end of the grand hall where a number of people were mingling.
So, I found it an entire corner of the room devoted to cheese or rather sheese, the alternative to Dairy and the only thing in the room disappearing at 100 mph, one tiny toothpick at a time. Ok, so.. you ask ??What??s its like this cheese alternative??? and I am going to be honest with you, the few little morsels I had at the stab and grab stall I enjoyed. But and that??s a big but, my further purchase of smoked Sheese from my local Deli left me a little cold and I am still missing my old cheese buddy. But i have faith and i am sure i will find it soon.
The Viva stand had me grabbing for as much animal welfare leafletage as i could possibly contain in two hands. Viva’s adverts have impact because of their honesty, a calf sitting on a plate, a man in a business suit suckling from a Dairy cow and the sweet face of a piglet looking out from the glossy leaflet – all making a pretty poignant point individually and all begging the question ??why?? not a soft cuddly ??aw we shouldn??t eat them, they are cute.. where??s my beef burger? but a ??Whow, is it really right that they should suffer so much for addiction? kind of question. Viva website
I had a lovely chat to Caroline from ‘Good Oil’ and will be covering the company in more detail in a future post
The Good oil website
Alan knight from international animal rescue is a great guy and they do some fantastic work, the fact that they a few bears off putting an end to the dancing bear trade in India was inspiring. You can read about it and help them on their website IAR
Infinity foods really didnt want to have their picture taken, but i took it anyway. Infinity are the ‘vegan nuts’ they have all you would ever need as a vegan and never leave you wanting more. You can check them out on infinity foods
Being a big fan of Keith Mann a former ALF organiser, this stand was very interesting. I bought the book “Dusk til dawn’ with a picture of Britches the tiny monkey part of the famous ALF rescue and will be reviewing it in a later post. The kid and his mum were lovely and very informed about Keith and his work. You can read more about him here the think bookshop .asp
Caroline was a little hung over but still very professional, she makes all her own vegan chocolate eggs and i couldnt resist buying one for my flat mate for Easter. I’ll be reviewing the egg, once consumed in a later post the chocolate alchemist
This charity is wonderful, they rescue and care for monkeys that are kept as pets in the UK, something that i couldnt belive was still happening here. I am going to pop down to visit them in the next couple of months monkey sanctuary
If you have read any of the other posts you will know that i wasnt too happy about the sentance dealt out to the SHAC members recently. I did ask how they are and the girl on the stand said that they are all doing well, but are all still in prison. I know alot of people find the methods that SHAC use distasteful but i have to say that the methods Huntingdon use are far more disgusting and disturbing. Go to the SHAC website to read about it.
Big shout out to conscious chocolate they are by far the most amasing vegan chocolate company. I took a few bars of the essentia organge oil and mint oil into work and my omnivorous workmates fell over themselves to munch down.
I also met the fantastic Karin Ridgers who runs ‘Mad Promotions’ and ‘Veggie Vision’, i had a great chat with Karin who was busy protecting a plate full of vegan cake and will be writing an article on ‘Veggie Vision‘.
I was very impressed with the Eco Garage, they sell electric cars and i for one think that the funky little orange numbers looked fab. Charging your phone and your car overnight seams like a good idea to me. I’ll go into more depth in a future post but for now click on the image to go through to the website.
I left the festival feeling inspired, the people there were active interesting individuals that spent their time doing and not procrastinating. It was a good feeling being one of them
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