LONDON VEGAN FESTIVAL - 2011

Woo hoo!  It was the London Vegan Festival on Saturday.  An annual event held in an exhibition hall just off Kensington High Street.  I had been before, a few years back, but to be honest I'd not really enjoyed it.  This time was different though, I had people I wanted to meet and a few foods I had on my list to try.

The day had pasted up wall to wall sunshine so I decided to walk along the Thames before hopping on a tube to wilt in the high heat of a packed train.  The Circle line was closed so I had to walk from South Kensington, which could have been annoying but turned out rather well as a very manicured Italian Adonis agreed to accompany me the mile or so to the High Street, following my plea for him to relieve me from my state of lostness (is that a word?.. actually no, but I'm using it anyway).

When I entered the festival I was plunged into a world of brown.  I then recalled why I didn't  much enjoy the festival the first time I'd gone.  Kudos to London holding a vegan festival but to be honest in my opinion, the building is depressing and dingy and doesn't really do much to advertise bright and happy vegan living. 

Anyhow, I had a job to do so I wandered around the stalls.  Encouragingly the place was packed and patience was called upon to reach the front of the rows of people and get to sample tiny squares of things on cocktail sticks.  Much of the stalls were animal rights based and, being food obsessed,  I would have loved to have seen a bigger food contingency too.

I picked up a few cards and flyer's from the stalls that impressed me;

 Raw Delights had some really good granola and savoury crackers

www.moofreechocolates.com were there with their vegan chocs and hamster (??) mascot

www.redwoodfoods.co.uk had some samples of their 'meats' (too closely resembling the real thing for my liking but would be a good choice perhaps for those transitioning. Their BLUE CHEESE was delicious. 

I FINALLY got to meet www.mscupcake.com - what a sweetie - agreeing to pose for this picture.  She'd already nearly sold out of her creations by 1pm

www.plamil.com had a stall packed with all their flavoured chocolates and vegan mayonnaise

Bright West Indian flavour from the Green garden cafe

this rather nice chap from Redwoods had some tasty soya free, yogurt made from pea protein and fruit sweetened.  Do you think he had honed his pot holding skills before the festival?

The gluten free cheesy slice and colourful fresh salads from www.fairfoods.org were enticing and I was curious to try so this was my lunch option (surprising how I had room after a round of sampling and a cake pod and cupcake!).  I didn't take a pic (this is courtesy of their website - you can also get the recipe here).  I can report it was rustic, delicious and I cleaned my plate.

A full list of programme promoters, vendors and sponsors can be seen here.  Other noteworthy vendors;

www.mccakes.co.uk - wonderful artistic custom made cakes

www.bboheme.com - Bourgeois Boheme had a line up of some very stylish and covetable boots and shoes

www.establishlife.org - sweet couple just on the cusp of launching their new online  wholefoods store and lifestyle management consultancy - cooking courses etc.

Sorry the stall was too crowded and my pics all had an orgy of arms in front of the produce but www.vegusto.co.uk makers of organic vegan, soya free, nut based cheese had some very tasty hard cheeses.

http://www.beanieshealthfoods.co.uk/ had a hearty line up of their fake meats and sausages to sample from their Frys Foods range.

www.veganrunners.org.uk  had left their trainers (sneakers) at home for today and were signing up new members.

www.animalcharitiesfair.org.uk were promoting their fair to be held at THE CAMDEN CENTRE on Sunday 6th November

www.animalaid.org.uk were one of the festival sponsors

My favourite gluten free, sugar free, bonnie wee lass www.hannahbananabakery.co.uk  whose raspberry chocolate cupcake pods had me all giddy with delight when I reviewed them last week - read (drool) here was there in a volunteering capacity for her favourite animal rights organisation so only had a small but happy-making selection of her cake pods.  Yum in abundance!

Talks and workshops on raw food, Animal Liberation, massage, gardening and even vegan bodybuilding went on throughout the day. 

I think the UK has someway to go to match the vegan food festivals of LA and San Francisco.  Very salubrious affairs, held in HUGE beautiful, light exhibition centres, they are full of fun and seem to attract a large following of veg curious too.  To be honest I didn't feel like this event had moved on much....one day.  Though, counting the number of footfalls crossing the threshold and gathering in the sunshine outside makes me hopeful for the future.