So, you’ve heard that processed foods are bad too, huh? Well luckily for all of us, there has been a serious growth in the availability and information surrounding alternative lifestyles with the vegetarian/vegan movement gaining more widespread popularity.
This year, our beautiful city will be hosting its fourth annual Montreal Vegan Festival at the Marché Bonsecours, and it promises to deliver on more than just a few recipe suggestions. Since its creation, the festival has seen an impressive spike in the public’s interest, with last year’s event brining in 15,000 visitors! This is quite a feat considering the event’s humble beginnings.
For those interested in veganism, the festival’s offerings are sure to satisfy even the newest of newbies to this lifestyle. Not only will you get the opportunity to learn more about the ecological, ethical, and environmental aspects of veganism, you’ll also have the opportunity to try new dietary products, expand on your cooking skills with some new recipes and attend cooking demonstrations, and learn about new beauty and clothing options. Among some of the retailers this year are Gusta, Vega, Rachelle Berry, and LaCrem, a selection that’s sure to satisfy most needs and budgets. Plus, true to the city’s standards, the vegan festival is bilingual, yet another inclusive aspect.
And that’s not all: this year, the festival will be hosting a variety of guest speakers, from Chris Cookney, author of Your Vegan Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse to Antoine Jolicoeur Desrocher, a triathlete from Montreal. There will also be a free screening of the documentary Le Temps Des Bêtes [The Age of Beasts] by François Primeau, which explores themes of cruelty and compassion. The screening will be followed by a Q & A session with the director and Carl Saucier-Bouffard, associate researcher at Oxford University and instructor on environmental ethics.
With such an impressive line-up set over two days and with no entrance fee to pay, this upcoming weekend is the perfect opportunity to learn about eating cleaner and contributing to the preservation of the environment – and also feeling less guilty about that angus burger you just ate.
For more information: check out the Vegan Festival’s website.
When: 10am to 6pm on November 4 and 10am to5 pm on November 5
Where: Marché Bonsecours, 350 Rue Saint-Paul Est, Montreal
Price: Free!
Photos courtesy of the Vegan Festival.
