So, I went to my first ever vegan festival. Yeah, they have those! Granted, there are festivals for almost everything. There is a whole vegan culture that I was exposed to at this event and I wanted to share that with all of YOU.Â
Let me clear the air: first and foremost, no, I’m not a vegan. I wish I was, but I’m not. I’ve only recently given up meat. Which, to some vegans, doesn’t sound like much. But I was reassured by a few at the festival that making that change was a step in the right direction. My goal here in the next few months is to be more conscious of the animal based products I consume by using vegan alternatives when possible. Which is actually quite hard. I love cheese, maybe a little too much… but I just love cheese. That’s where veganism always gets me. I know, I sound a bit dramatic, but it is hard.Â
Now, let’s return to the vegan festival and what it was like through my eyes.Â
At first, I was filled with anxiety and excitement. I’m an insanely picky eater, would there be food that I actually enjoy? Are there going to be extreme animal activist protests? I was going in completely blind with little to no knowledge about vegan lifestyle. But, I was proven wrong.Â
The food was amazing. What wasn’t amazing was the wait for the food, but it was made up for with how incredible everything tasted. Since I went with my family, we spread out and waited in lines for food and then split everything. While one half of my family waited in line for vegetarian tacos, the other half of us went around to find what other food was in store.Â
First, we ate a build-your-own fruit bowl from a local restaurant in Dayton, Ohio. For the base we had acai fruit then we added a ton of fruit (strawberries, pineapple, blueberries, and banas), almond butter and coconut shavings. I’m not really a pineapple or blueberry fan but all around, it was something I enjoyed eating.Â
I’ve never had an acai bowl and it for sure would be something I would have again. It was something that satisfied my sweet tooth without actually eating something sweet. In the heat, it started to melt so we had to eat fast. So, we ate fast because not only because of the heat, but because of how AMAZING it was. It was a good little snack to eat while waiting in more lines.Â
The line that was truly one of the longest but worth the wait was for a business called, Village Tacos. We ordered the mini nachos with vegetarian pulled pork and the VT Classic made with buffalo chicken. We waited about an hour in line and for the food.Â
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Just looking at the photo is making my mouth water again. It had a wide variety of different flavors that I never thought I would enjoy. Village Tacos is founded down in Columbus and apparently they travel quite a bit for vegan festivals.Â
But what was really interesting was the animal activists. To my surprise, there weren’t a ton of them and they were silent in their activism. There was a little booth where it said, “I’ll pay you $1 to watch this 4-minute-video” which was four-minutes of how animals are treated. If you’re wondering, no I did not have the stomach to watch those videos.Â
As we were on our way out, there was another woman standing at the side of the festival wearing a mask while holding a TV playing a video of an animal cruelty. I’ve seen videos like these before that have been surfaced on the internet, but I often thought they were too graphic. But they are also quite motivating to make a transition in lifestyles.
My experience wasn’t one that I was expecting, it was a welcoming community I would love to eventually join. Making this transition is going to be quite the journey, but after this weekend, I know I will eventually join a loving community.