When I was back in Seattle I attended a similarly branded “fest” a couple of times. A place for anyone who was interested to come and sample various vegetarian and vegan food and to attend panels on cooking, health, and ethics. It was called Veg Fest NW there and was organized by Vegetarians of Washington and seems to be still going strong. I had seen that the brand had more or less made its way here a few years ago, but this was the first chance I able to check it out. Veggie Fest Chicagoland is organized and took place on the grounds of the Science of Spirituality Meditation Center. More on the obvious differences caused by sponsorship concerns later. I was able to make it to the final few hours of the second day.
The event in Seattle took place in one of the meeting halls at Seattle Center, whereas this gathering was spread among tents outside the Meditation Center. It reminded me of the now defunct Book Fest in Seattle which for a couple of years was inside a building but the building itself was often an aging pier warehouse in November, so the effects of its walls were often minimal. I missed those Book Fests, so it was nice to find something in this area that had even a small amount of similarity. It was far from cold and I made the mistake of not bringing a hat, but they were distributing free sun screen which helped me avoid the worst of the sunburn.
The organization of the grounds seemed organized and parking was plentiful. I was a bit annoyed that something like this was out of the reach of public transportation, but I got over it. I attended two different panels, one by a web based vegan meat substitute company and the other a demonstration of vegan Mexican cooking. A nicely produced cookbook was provided and I will be trying some of the recipes from that presentation as well as some of the others soon and post my results here.
The aforementioned philosophical undertone present at this event was not overpowering, but it was certainly obvious. I commend the Meditation Center for continuing to put on this event and, a side note, the depth of the spanish language accomodations was both interesting and suprising to me for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on.
If they continue with these events in the future I certainly plan to try to make it on Saturday as well. The overall atmosphere was splendid and it does provide a nice balance to the Annual Ribfest which happens in the same suburb for the 4th of July. The local papers were quick to point out this irony, but with all their statistics I think they have missed the point that some of us are grateful that events of this kind exist at all.
