So Vegfest came to Brighton this weekend and I went. I came home armed with freebies from the lovely, generous folk at Goodlife, as well as shocked and delighted tastebuds from the endless samples.. sweet... savoury.... sweet... savoury.... weird... repeat, repeat.
I accidentally spent all of my money in the pub the previous night, so couldn't buy anything but tried...
- seriously good carrot, cardamom, quinoa and something or other flapjacks... from a lovely lady representing Flaxfarm in Horsham
- pretty nice chocolate milk from the folk at Kara
- Diary free chocolates from Moo Free (I wish I didn't hate the packaging but oh I do)
- A big squidge of icing from Ms Cupcake as the last cake samples had been devoured as we approached the Ms Cupcake guy.
- A delicious wild mushroom burger from Vegusto. I was too busy eating it to pay attention to it's official title so just tried to find it online. While it tasted incredible and I was totally sold when the guy told us about the mushrooms being picked by fairies in the wild Swiss hills there's a large part of me that hopes it's not this! When a product tastes this good, there is simply no need to kill it with pictures that make it look like some sort of emergency organ delivery.
- Moving on... I was impressed with my little taste of Bessant & Drury ice cream in chocolate and strawberry. For me the strawberry was very good but Booja Booja stil far outshines in the chocolate field.
- I got info'd up about Veg boxes delivered to your door by Riverford
- Finally, Good Life were giving out cool bags containing four boxes of their frozen lazy vegan food.. ta very much! (sorry for such a rubbish pic)
I left with lots of new information and tastes for my vegan mouth but opinionated as ever, I have a fair bit criticism for Vegfest.
(The more forgiving vegan blogger in Brighton had much more positive words to say so why not have a little read here before being poisoned by my vitriol)
There were so many positives about what was there; the scale of the event, the amazing freebies, tasters, generally wonderful, friendly folk and good good vibes, that it's even more of a shame that it left me so confused and irritated. It looked like a cross between a jumble sale, 1980s corporate function and a school cake sale. I think the horrendous rabbit warren inspired venue paid a huge disservice to the stallholders who had largely made a serious effort to make their wares look fantastic and marketable.
There was no visible promotion from the busy main road. Had I gone alone and not with a friend who knew where it was, I would have had no idea where I was going, got mightily fucked off with sat nav chirping away telling me to turn around and would have gone home. Luckily my friend led the way.
Once we arrived, there seemed to be no signage to help navigate the two floors, instead there were some green, boring looking flyers on a few tables and people milling around in big groups very very slowly. It was all just too much like slow, meditative chaos for my liking. I like chaos elsewhere but not in my trade shows! MAKE IT SIMPLE!
The layout was just confusing, with rooms appearing to give birth to other little rooms, that led back to the original rooms, slightly Alice in Veganland.
Overall, it really was just far too disorganised to be taken seriously, which just seems so unnecessary. It serves as a reminder that if I continue with a blog after thisisveganmarch, it will have to encompass the other areas in which I have experience and passion... fashion... art...interiors... film... infact anything beautiful! I really think that in order for, what sadly is, 'the alternative way of eating' to be sold to the wider world, things need to be done differently.
Why can't being nice to the world just be a little bit sexier?
