Last Sunday, on April 8, roughly around 6 thousand eager, animal-loving, vegan food loving people gathered at Westside Park for Gainesville's first annual VegFest. The park was covered in bright colored tents giving away free vegan snacks, samples and coupons, informative booths about animal sanctuaries and rescues (including Plenty Of Pit Bulls!) that promote animal welfare and help save lives every day, nutritional booths educating about a plant based lifestyle, environmental awareness groups, and a variety of cruelty-free vendors (including myself) selling all kinds of merchandise ranging from vegan protein powder, to leggings and boutique clothing, to hanging fish friends made out of coconuts, to vegan tee shirts, to pet beds and more (and of course my art!). I did fairly well at this event, most probably because I have hand painted merchandise revolving around what vegans love the most: wildlife, the environment, and pets (as a vegan and an artist-- I only encompass my most favorite things in my art--- it was great meeting similar people to share my art with!). I met so many amazing people that visited my booth to buy my art, order a custom piece, or just hang around to chat.. and I even made some new friends (because what better place to do so than a place where you're surrounded by like-minded people!) :)
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| My specially made vegan-minded signs for VegFest-- almost all of them sold! |
My only complaint was as a vendor I didn't get to wander as much as I would have liked, but I had plenty of opportunities to take off to buy merchandise that helped promote animal saving organizations, explore the other vendors and had Josh wait over an HOUR (that's how popular the vegan food was!) at a Latina food truck with a variety of empanadas (one of several amazing food vendors there). This event was literally hopping all day long, probably the busiest out of any festival or show I have done thus far. To check out more about the event, get involved in the local community, and to be informed about next year's Vegfest, like their Facebook page!
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| There's Josh in the lime green shirt finally getting our food! Photo snagged from this great VegFest article :) |
Thanks for the board who planned the event and let me be a part of it. You all rock! :) Cannot wait til next year!
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