Crowds set to Flock to Huge Vegan Extravaganza

Early press release below for this year's West Midlands Vegan Festival on Saturday 27th October.

http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk/

Press Release - 16/8/12

Crowds set to Flock to Huge Vegan Extravaganza

One of the biggest vegan festivals in the world returns to Wolverhampton on Saturday 27th October 2012 and looks set to dwarf last year's event!!

It's the 5th year of the festival, and due to increasing popularity, the event will take over the entire Wolves Civic venue for the first time, filling both of the massive Civic and Wulfrun Halls.

The festival will showcase the very best in veganism and features an array of exciting attractions. Visitors can expect to find over 100 stalls, mouth-watering cookery demos all day, 20 inspiring talks, an action-packed line-up of live entertainment from start to finish, a licensed all vegan bar, kids activities, competitions, an after party and so much more!!

The festival has been organised by voluntary group Midlands Vegan Campaigns(MVC). [1]

Kevin White, MVC founder & main event coordinator said, "The festival will offer all you need for healthy, cruelty-free, eco-friendly living. Festival-goers don't have to be veggie or vegan to attend, all are welcome! Last year, half of our 1,700 visitors were non-vegans! We encourage everyone to come and discover why people are increasingly adopting a vegan lifestyle". [2]

There'll be free food samples galore and a wide variety of hot & cold food on sale, provided by popular vegan caterers from as far away as Manchester, London & Devon. Kevin White says "the fantastic feast will demonstrate how delicious, appetising and varied vegan cuisine has become. We promise to tempt the taste buds of even the most committed carnivores!!".

Stalls will offer a vast range of items, including cosmetics & toiletries, chocolate & sweets, footwear & clothing, cakes, healthfood, recipe books, gifts etc. Many campaigning organisations & sanctuaries will raise awareness & funds for their work.

The Cookery demos will have various themes, including quick & easy meals; vegan & gluten-free baking; and Indian meals. All attendees can tuck in to the delicious results and take home recipes.

There will be 3 talk rooms, each with a full programme of speakers, films, workshops etc. Talks will focus on a diverse range of issues including going vegan, animal politics, vegan nutrition, saving wildlife through direct action, raw living food diets and the environmental cost of meat/dairy.

A dedicated entertainment room/bar will feature a range of performers throughout the day, including live bands, performance poets, comedians & acoustic musicians.

The first 200 people through the door, will be treated to FREE goodie bags which will be packed full of cosmetic samples, sweets, discount vouchers and lots more!

There'll also be a push-up contest; speed meeting session; fitness challenge on a rowing machine; grand raffle with £1,000 worth of prizes; yoga session and more!

Kevin White continued, "Whether you want to try a new pair of non-leather shoes before you buy them, gorge yourself on the fantastic animal-friendly feast, learn how to be a healthy vegan, buy cruelty-free gifts for Xmas or chill out with friends enjoying the finest organic, vegan beer whilst listening to some great performers - you can do it all at the West Midlands Vegan Festival."

"People who choose not to eat animal products do so for a whole range of reasons, not the least being that a varied vegan diet lowers the risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers and increases life expectancy. It also eliminates suffering and saves the lives of thousands of animals as well as being a lot kinder to the planet. Vegan food is not only nutritious but it's delicious too, as everyone visiting the festival will discover."

The festival is taking place at the Wolves Civic between 11am and 6pm. Admission is just £1, under 16's get in for free. The admission price entitles visitors to attend all the talks, cookery demos and entertainment.

Anyone seeking more information can find full details, including the programme for the day and a list of all the stallholders, on the festival website www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk or by calling 01527 458395.

ENDS

Notes for Editors

1. Midlands Vegan Campaigns is a small group of volunteers, committed to promoting healthy, cruelty-free, eco-friendly plant based diets/lifestyles across the West Midlands region. See the MVC website www.veganmidlands.org.uk and the festival website www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk

2. Kevin White can be contacted on 01527 458395 or 07758 106395 or via email

info@veganmidlands.org.uk

Midlands Vegan Campaigns
Homepage: http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk/

Comments

Hide the following 16 comments

Greenwash

16.08.2012 23:19

These sort of events are nothing more than green capitalism wrapped up nicely in neat, radical packaging. They do not promote animal liberation, they merely exist for companies to flog their 'ethical wares' to middle-class yuppies. 'Ethical consumerism' will never change anything, and until we begin to realise this, the animal liberation movement in this country is going to go nowhere.

Veganarchist

agree

16.08.2012 23:47

Mid class liberals who do nothing to get there hands dirty vegan festival waste of time there playing at ar. a bunch of wankas.

nationalist ar

Not very spectacular.

17.08.2012 09:30

Thats right, nothing to see here, just move on.
Nothing of interest. Nobody really interested.
Not really a relevant issue.
Very exclusive really, quite difficult to get involved.
Keep your hands dirty.
Nothing to see, just move on.
All very peaceful.

chicken

Grassroots, not-for-profit event run by volunteers

17.08.2012 11:10

Have you guys ever attended the festival? Last year there were 25 stalls from animal rights groups/sanctuaries etc. These stalls are always keen to be there, because it's an effective means for them to raise awareness and find new active members, whilst also raising money to fund their campaigns. Stall prices for campaigns and sanctuaries are kept to a minimum, allowing many to attend, unlike some other big vegan festivals.

The event is organised by grassroots AR activists. You don't see much about animal rights on the website, leaflets or press releases, because unfortunately that would put people off attending. We seek to maximise attendance figures by making the event sound exciting, emphasising the many attractions and by keeping talk of AR to a minimum, but when people get inside the venue, there is a strong AR message.

The festival is as much about vegan awareness as anything else. Our promotion has the desired effect, as consistently half of those attending are non-vegans. Last year approx 850 non-vegans, many of whom pledged to change their diet as a result, but all of them will have become more aware.

The organisers of this event have been involved in environmental campaigning for as long as animal rights, and are keen to push environmental issues too, which is why you'll find various 'green' campaigns etc.

We agree that over-consumption of resources is one of the most serious issues we face. Like it or not, most people want 'stuff' and whilst that's the case, it's better that they buy products that don't contain animal products, that are not tested on animals, that are organic, produced and sold by small ethical companies who use renewable energy, ethically source their ingredients etc.

When people become more aware of animal rights/environmental issues, they very often change their habits and 'consume' less, and this is ultimately what we hope for. But yes we agree that we could definately do with more emphasis on this with stalls that encourage low impact, simple living, but unfortunately we don't seem to have interest from such groups. If you know any group who would like such a stall, then please let us know.

Midlands Vegan Campaigns
Homepage: http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk

been there done it

17.08.2012 11:52

Ive been around the ar scene over 30 years vegan fests waste of time. The hard work is street stalls month in month out phoneing for permits filling em in getting em back paking ya car up paying car park fees standing all day thats what its all about. The last vegan fest i went to was in london there was an anti racist stall there whats that got to with ar anx people wonder why the movements split you cant pick and choose in ar your either for the right of the animal or not.

circles

850 non-vegans attended last year!

17.08.2012 12:25

Circles, 850 non-vegans attended last year! They tried the food, they listened to talks about animal rights and vegan nutrition, they learned how to cook vegan, they visited dozens of AR campaigning stalls and learnt about the issues. How is all of this a waste of time??!!

Midlands Vegan Campaigns
Homepage: http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk

youll learn

17.08.2012 13:05

look ar means getting together half a dozen men who know the score and doing the job. dog a cat whatever stuck in a poxhole getting a kicking not fed no walks etc how many people going to a vfest would go to that block house where ever and take the poor sod. Ile tell you how many none! Vfest is a day out for liberal green types. Take some advice get a few mates together stick together do the odd demo etc and if you ever liberate an an animal tell no one!!!.

circles

saving animals through vegan awareness

17.08.2012 14:18

Animal rights means different things to different people. Many activists change the way they campaign over time. We've also been involved many years and we've been active in every way possible for the animals. These days, we concentrate on raising awareness via large scale vegan events. These are not only effective in terms of attracting large numbers of non-vegans, we know that many of them change their diet/lifestyle as a direct result. A single meat eater will be responsible for the death of 1,000's of animals in their lifetime. Helping them to change their ways is probably the most effective action we can take.

Midlands Vegan Campaigns
Homepage: http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk

good luck

17.08.2012 15:33

Differnent types sonny vfest not for us. Much better to dish up an animal abuser than eat a vegan cake at a vfest. You have to be a certain type to do what weve done ( your only as good as the people your with) if ya on ya own ya nothing dont ever forget that. Think its 1 cow 1 humans average life. Anyway sonny good luck.

circles

Vegan activism for animal liberation!

17.08.2012 16:53

Vegan activism = more vegans

Midlands Vegan Campaigns
Homepage: http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk

To Veganarchist

17.08.2012 23:01

Veganarchist - would you rather everyone kept eating meat? It seems like you don't care about educating others about vegan food and products. Animal liberation may get a few animals free, but how are you going to transform the world?

The organisers that are involved in the vegan festival live, sleep, eat and breath animal rights. They protest, they campaign for animals 24/7. The vegan festival is 1 day in a year. 1 day from 365 days. 364 days they are doing other animal rights related work. And it's a way to educate others that won't listen to "animal rights activists" any other time. It seems like you'd rather vegan companies didn't exist. What would you eat if there were no companies selling vegan food? What would you wear or use if there were no vegan clothes or products? We need vegan companies and we need to inform others about them. Although a lot of hard work goes into this, it's not all the organisers do, they are involved in animal rights their whole life. They are just not narrow-minded and know that there is more to changing the world that sticking your head in a dark box and thinking the only way is liberation. Maybe you should educate yourself a little bit more about the number of people that have become vegan or tried vegan food and become more aware about animal rights through other ways than just liberation. Have you ever been to the West Mids Vegan Festival or talked to new vegans that have? And even if, lets say, we get all negative and the festival really did nothing - then why does a 1 day festival bug you so much? Leave everyone who enjoys it to have one day of enjoyment - after all their hard protesting work the rest of the year. Go back to your cynical box and be grumpy your whole life. Happy, forward-thinking people are going to change the world a whole lot quicker than you.

xVx

Support the Vegan Festival

19.08.2012 11:28

I can't understand how anyone can make negative comments about the Festival. I've been several times and it's fantastic to see people working together. Those who organise it put in many hours of their time voluntarily and they are definitely pushing forward change. I've spoken to several people who have changed their attitude towards the vegan way of life once they've been to this type of event. We have to be collaborative and positive or nothing will ever change for the better.

Diane Smith

vegan hmmm

19.08.2012 16:19

When you have a person whos farther is a millionair retired butcher sitting at a table at the london vegan fest you have to ask youself vegan?. And you wonder why ar is split.

butcher boy

Effective

20.08.2012 15:14

Vegan campaigning is probably the most effective way to move towards animal liberation we have. For each new vegan many fewer animals will be raised (ab)used and killed.

Slagging off people who run successful vegan campaigns is probably one of the least effective ways to move towards animal liberation.

You choose.

vegan

Educating widely by treading gently

20.08.2012 17:47

Animal cruelty is disgusting, but the mainstream media and the corporations make sure it stays hidden.
Helping individual animals cruelly treated is important - but more so is bringing the hidden face of cruelty out from behind the balaclavas. The media villify and abuse AR campaigners - so many years on they are still wittering on about released mink, because their paymaster advertisers tell them to.

Events like the Midlands Vegan Festival attract vegetarians who may become vegans, and those people who currently have no awareness of animal rights, corporate cruelty or how to become vegan.

How does hiding in the dark and saving a few isolated animals (yes it is brave and selfless though and I do admire you) help those who are unenlightened and lied to by the mainstream who consume and use products which are made from and tested on millions of animals every year?

Often once people become aware of the range of products they can use instead of the mainstream heavily advertised products (we all need to eat to survive and I personally like having clean teeth) and how easy it can be to go vegan people become aware of their actions more - and care more. I was a vegetarian for 16 years until I became a vegan 'just to give it a go', and I am now far more aware, and actively seek to find out and ensure that everything I use is cruelty free, which I didn't think about as much when I was 'just a veggie'. Supporting, educating and standing together are so important - those with the money and power want us to be ripped apart - we are far less effective in challenging them then.

We have to battle on all fronts - and supporting each other for the sake of the animals and putting our human differences aside and extending peace and love and support to all who follow this path often in the face of criticism from families, friends and society should be the way.

Stand together for the animals.
Peace, love and light to all who care for our planetary companions.

Green Amber

Updated festival leaflets & posters - please help to distribute/display

26.08.2012 21:24

15,000 updated West Midlands Vegan Festival leaflets & 1,000 A4 posters are expected back from the printers any day now! We really need your help to get these distributed & displayed far and wide, ie. cafes, libraries, community centres, health food shops, universities, churches, shop windows etc etc! Please contact us with your name, address and the number of leaflets/posters you can use. Thanks! :)

Don't forget to spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, forums, blogs, newsletters etc

http://www.facebook.com/events/417809864898883/

https://twitter.com/WMVeganFestival

http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk

Thanks for your help in making this by far the biggest and best WMVF to date! :)

Best wishes,
MVC

Midlands Vegan Campaigns
Homepage: http://www.midlandsveganfestival.org.uk