Monday, October 4, 2010

San Francisco's World Veg Festival

Who: VN Editorial Assistant Brooke Still with the rest of the VN staff and lots of happy vegetarians
What: The 11th Annual World Veg Festival Weekend
Where: San Francisco, Calif.
When: October 2 and 3, 2010
Why: To celebrate all things veg in the Bay Area and beyond!

The Scoop: From Thailand to Toronto, from Seattle to San Diego, vegetarian, vegan, and animal rights festivals happen year round, and this weekend, it was VN's hometown's turn at the 11th Annual San Francisco World Veg Festival Weekend, hosted by the San Francisco Vegetarian Society. Each year, the festival is held around World Vegetarian Day, and always draws scores of people wanting to celebrate all things veg. So we packed up all our goodies from our new headquarters and headed over to Golden Gate Park.

Everyone picked up a copy of VegNews!

Believe it or not, this was my first veg festival, and I wasn't sure what to expect short of, well, food. I wasn't entirely wrong—there was A LOT of veg food, from cupcakes to Tofurky pizza samples (I only had one! ...ish) to Asian cuisine to granola bars—all proving how diverse and delicious veg fare can be. But there was so much more than that. The World Veg Festival was stacked with literature and information on the vegan and vegetarian lifestyle. Everything you could ever need to know about the status of factory farming, ways to help shelter animals, or how to whip up a cruelty-free dinner in no time was available. Oh, and fashion. Gorgeous vegan clothes were for sale, supplied by many a vegan designers, including Vaute Couture.

Vegan fashion

And of course, as is the case with these amazing festivals, there was a wide range of speakers to choose from, including Dr. Steve Blake, VN columnist Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, John Robbins, Dr. Michael Greger, Skinny Bitch's Rory Freedman, and more. The weekend was also packed with other exciting veg events, including an interview of the fabulous Ms. Freedman by VN Publisher Joseph Connelly.

I had a great time donning my very first "You Are What You Read" t-shirt, and helping spread the VN love by selling subscriptions. We rocked our shifts and had an amazing time at the festival full of like-minded, fun-loving people. Don't miss recaps from the first all-vegan fashion show and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival coming this week!

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