With it being National Vegetarian week and all … why not go and have a look at what the vegans are doing at VegFest?
If you are vegan, or you do follow a plant-based diet, then it appears to be an absolute must … but for those who are either curious or have begun tinkering around with the plant-based approach my guess is it’ll be similar to the time you first visited a science museum on a school-trip … only you can eat almost everything.
Seeing the amazement in meat-eaters when they’re presented with meat-alternatives has got more fascinating for me … I’m not trying to convert anybody, whatever they do is up to them, I’m not a control-freak and I don’t want to oppress anybody … but when they struggle to tell the difference in, say, beef jerky and vegan jerky, which was my most recent experiment, their reactions are great – “It tastes like meat?â€Â, “Are you sure this isn’t meat?â€Â, “Well what’s the point in meat then?â€Â.
I used to answer their questions but I’ve realised I’m not actually the one they’re asking … what they seem to be doing is asking themselves questions but speaking out loud … after a while I would ask whether they would consider turning vegan but this seemed to simply shatter their thought process and provoke the answer “noâ€Â. However, leave them to it and say nothing, and they seem to want to try more.
I spoke with the organiser, Tim Barford, who’s a pretty cool chap … deep-thinking, philosophical, funny … my kinda pub-mate … plus he likes football … Bristol City fan to be exact, (he must have known they weren’t going to make the play-off final when he booked the event on the same day as the play-off final … unfortunately for me, Villa did, so I’m royally screwed), but I’m betting there’ll be a television inside the venue … there’s a heck of a lot going on at the event.
There’s a deep chill lounge, a blues lounge, a live acts lounge, an electro lounge … there’s even a comedy stage and, would you believe it, they’ve even gone and got bloomin Judge Jules headling the Dance Stage … I mean, it’s a frickin Vegan festival … with food, entertainment, comedy … loads to try, loads to buy … products of all sorts from businesses, traders and best of all I’ve never once been nutted by a vegan … so, quite frankly, it should be an awesome day out and there’s still tickets if you fancy going. I’ll be watching Villa in one of the bars eating a dirty vegan burger. See you there.