Plant parties - Vegan Day goes off!
There seems to be an official day for just about everything now, which means that anything considered niche or dull is dutifully ignored by traditional media channels.
The upside of this odd scenario is that human participation in social media means that we don’t have to wait for a small spot on the TV news to find out about something that interests us, as we’re all now seemingly connected — for better or worse — through the tentacles of Facebook and its numerically lesser challengers.
October saw the annual celebration of World Vegetarian Month, and the New Zealand Vegetarian Society marked the auspicious occasion with their 75th anniversary dinner at the Heritage on 20 October. Then there’s World Vegan Day on 1 November, a day that is also marked in some countries for celebrating The Day Of The Dead, All Saints Day and National Nachos Day!
It’s gratifying to see that more and more commemorative events are springing up around the country, some of them in even quite small towns. For instance, the Invercargill Vegan Society is hosting a potluck dinner at the local library. It’s interesting to note that the Invercargill branch is the southernmost vegan group and has been very active in promoting plant-based lifestyles since 2011, and in 2012 they gave free tofu to local butchers. You can imagine how that went down!
The Dunedin Vegan Society is also putting on a potluck dinner with stalls and fundraising barbecue. Christchurch has a Vegan Expo that celebrates both World Vegan Day and World Animal Day (that was actually on October 4); Hamilton has a unique event with the Zealong Vegan High Tea at Zealong Tea Estate, Gordonton, on 1 November. Meanwhile, up north in Whangarei there’s the annual Vegan Expo on 25 November.
Back in Auckland, Hectors at The Heritage is having its annual vegan four course, plant-based set menu on 1 November, and Peter Gordon’s The Sugar Club at Sky City is also turning vegan for the day with a three -course set lunch and a seven-course dinner.
Wise Cicada is throwing a World Vegan Day party on 5 November, with live music, vegan barbecue and sampling of vegan products. The Auckland Vegan Society has opted for a vegan picnic a month later, on 1 December, at the Auckland Domain.
And for those who fancy a bit of vegan-oriented overseas travel, there is now a plethora of vegan festivals running pretty much year-round to chase. It can be a chore finding anything that doesn’t contain meat and fish in Japan, but the Vegan Gourmet Festival brings a new sophistication to vegan events with themed festivals including one devoted exclusively to vegan cheeses. If you like it large, then LA’s Eat Drink Vegan Festival (23 and 24 March 2019) is the biggest vegan festival in the world. Also in the US is the Moby-curated vegan music festival, Circle V, which hasn’t yet confirmed its 2019 dates.
Over in the UK/Europe, highlights include the Vegan Foodie Festival, which holds both Dublin and Amsterdam events in January and May respectively, London’s Vevolution, which describes itself as “inspiring events plus multimedia content for the plant powered generation,” and the Love Vegfest, which holds various vegan events throughout the UK including the first 'vegan trade and media show' displaying all the cutting-edge products coming to market. As for our neck of the woods, in Ponsonby and Grey Lynn it’s a seven-day week, ongoing, plant-powered bonanza. (GARY STEEL)