Back for a successful 18th year, the Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival arrived with two simple goals: to spread the word about the benefits of plant-based diets and to teach the community ways to reconcile a modern lifestyle with the health of our planet. With its mouthwatering foods and interactive outdoor booths, this year’s festival exceeded expectations.
Lee Park, a quiet sanctuary one block from the Downtown Mall, was transformed into a bustling market for all things eco-friendly last Saturday. Families and students alike frequented the numerous booths at the park, including Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness, Wildlife Virginia and the Vegetarian Resource Group.
Elsa Spencer, a Charlottesville resident who volunteered to run the Vegetarian Resource Group booth, said she has been a participating vendor at the Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival for almost 10 years.
“We’re a resource group, so the whole point is to provide information to people ... not so much to sell things," she said. "We’re more about answering questions like, ‘My teenager is a vegan and I’m worried about [his] iron levels.' I enjoy meeting people who come through who are genuinely interested in learning about veganism, vegetarianism or [who want to] become one but they encounter a stumbling block.”
Spencer and other VegFest participants handed out educational materials — some related to vegetarian diets and others related to the environment and animal rights.
“The purpose of [the festival] itself ... is to promote [a] plant-based lifestyle,” Fesitval Assistant Coordinator Eric Murphy said. “[But] the environmental and animal justice movements are definitely tightly linked to vegetarianism because being a vegetarian is not only healthier for the body if it is a fitting diet for the individual. It is also easier on the environment.”
Guest speakers held talks on plant-based athletic diets and genetically modified foods, in addition to lighter subjects, such as cooking demonstrations.
First-year Engineering student Nirali Jantrania dropped by the Charlottesville Vegetarian Market to hear Lorrie Delehanty, a laboratory manager at the Medical School, discuss genetically modified food.
In her talk, Delehanty discussed the history of GMOs, their rising popularity in the past 25 years and their positive and negative attributes.
“I was really happy [with the lecture] because it was … unbiased," Jantrania said. "It was a lot more informative than I expected. A lot of the time, GMO lectures are really emotional. People [try] to fear-monger. [Delehanty covered] a lot more about the science behind it.”
After enjoying the educational offerings of the festival, many VegFest visitors wandered into the food section to enjoy a wide selection of vegetarian meals. This year’s featured vendors included Royal Indian Restaurant, Pantheon Ice Pops and Soul Ice. All the food sold at the festival was either organic, plant-based or low-calorie and high in nutrients.
“Hopefully we can grow ... even more in the coming years,” Murphy said. “We have been trying harder to get the word out this year, but we’ll try harder next year. We’re hopeful that we may even outgrow [Lee Park] in the future.”
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