Living Planet Vegan Expo
This Sunday was The Living Planet Vegan Expo, hosted by the Vegan Society of New South Wales and held in the Petersham Town Hall. I took a lot of photos (on my crappy iPhone camera because dammit, I always manage to leave something behind), grabbed some business cards, and ate some delicious food.
I learned of some new restaurants like Au Lac Vegan in Cabramatta and Earth Vegan Cafe in Enmore. (Anyone wanna come along on a vegaroo! field trip with me?)
All in all, it was good times. There’s always something really positive about being in a room full of people who share (at least some) of your views. And this room was certainly packed! Now don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to be surrounded by compassionate vegans. There were far more than I expected to see. However, I can’t help but feel that the event would work so much better in a larger venue. After an hour, I had eaten a Funky Pie sausage roll, seen every booth, and was thoroughly worn out.
I really enjoyed some of the speakers, especially Amanda Benham who gave a lesson on vegan nutrition followed by a Q&A. However, it was also hard not to notice that everyone in the audience was chowing down on cupcakes and fried foods.
Now I’d be lying if I said I don’t generally enjoy these foods myself. And especially when it can be rare to find vegan versions of these treats out in restaurants and bakeries, it’s nice to splurge a little. But many of the vendors were selling processed foods and as someone who’s currently trying to shed a few pounds, it was surprisingly hard to find some lunch that fit in with my diet.
So those are my suggestions for next year: bigger venue, healthier food choices, whole foods! Maybe next year we’ll get a vegaroo! booth filled with healthy, tasty goodies! But really, overall, thumbs up to the Vegan Society for throwing such a great event. I know the amount of work that goes into planning these types of events and my hat’s off to you! And it was great finally meeting some of the vegans I’ve only talked to on Twitter!
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:09 am
Yesterday was a great day out, it’s fantastic to meet new vegans and catch up with the regular Sydney vegans but definitely agree that a bigger venue is needed for next year and healthier food options. I really wanted something gluten free for lunch but there wasn’t anything like that available.
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Yeah, I wanted some healthier food options, as well. I understand that people don’t often have the opportunity to eat the (delicious) Funky Pies and amazing Addiction Food brownies, but something like Iku Wholefoods or a juice/salad bar would have been a great addition, IMO.
(Also, I was so unimpressed to see one of the cooking demo people brandishing a piece of fish at her audience and proceeding to explain how to cut it. How is that vegan?)
It was great to see the variety of options that are available, whether we’re talking food, beauty products, recycled bags and belts or animal charities! Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in the “veanism is hard” mentality, and events like yesterday’s are a great reminder that it really, really isn’t hard.
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
@Liz Yes! Iku! Having just eaten lunch there, I wholeheartedly second that motion!
May 5th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
What a great day it was! Lots of yummy food. So many options, albeit mostly unhealthy junk food. It was great to meet up with more Vegans
May 5th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
P.S How do i get a userpic?
May 5th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Hi Stacy, it was nice to meet you Sunday! We use gravatar for our icons here. You can upload a photo here: http://en.gravatar.com/
May 11th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Liz – So was actual fish or mock-fish that was used at the demo?
And Iku or a salad bar would be a fantastic and much-needed addition to the food options.
August 17th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
[...] may already be familiar with Addiction Food, as they sell at Vegan’s Choice and were at the Vegan Expo in May. They specialise in vegan and gluten free desserts. I had a coconut bliss ball that was [...]