* You are welcome to use my photos but if you do, I’d appreciate it if you could link back to my blog. Thanks! This is also one very photo-heavy post!
World Vegan Day Melbourne! I’m trying to think up a sensible paragraph here but really, all I can think of is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
So wow, what a day! I got there an hour before opening time to get some photos of the stalls without crowds (thanks to the WVD staff who allowed me to go in early). There was quite a buzz with people bustling around and setting up. So many new stall holders to check out and familiar faces to return to. This year’s Melbourne WVD took up two pavillions, with food in one and non-food products/services in the other.
Because I have so, so many photos here I’ll keep the text to a minimum. None of the photos are in any way meant to be an official (or even professional, ha ha…) account. I hope I have the names of businesses correct, please leave me a comment if there’s something that needs correcting or mentioning.
FOOD!!!!!!
The Lord of the Fries WVD Chicago dog:
The Vegami Smoky Spiced Pepperoni is the best vegan pepperoni I have ever tasted:
SWEETS!!!!
MORE FOOD STALLS!!!!!
Sugarcane Juice:
Classica International:
Juanita’s:
Global Green Vegetarian Food Mart:
NON-FOOD STALLS!!!!!
The Australian Natural Soap Company:
Coalition Against Duck Shooting:
Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses:
TALKS AND DEMOS!!!!!
Leigh Drew made some recipes from Greenilicious (a great cookbook, same with Veganissimo!):
Phil Wollen gave a brilliant speech. At times it was very difficult to watch and hear, but it made me realise more than ever the importance of being vegan, for animals, humanity and the planet:
COOL VEGAN BAGS I SPOTTED
A bag by RARE Bags:
MUSIC!!!!
MY WVD SHOPPING TRIP!
A new necklace from Hello Vegan:
Tea tree soap from The Australian Natural Soap Company:
Kinda Cheese Nut parmesan from A Vegan Smiles (tastes so good I have to stop myself from eating it with the spoon already):
A mixed four-pack of Bruce Cost Ginger Ale:
A badge from We Love Life:
A glass smoothie jar with straw from The Raw Food Store:
The Vegami Spicy Smoked Pepperoni, I could have eaten the whole sample dish:
I tried all the samples (twice *cough*) of the macaroons by Life To You and had a hard time choosing which one to buy. I settled for the blueberry:
A pecan slice and rainbow chocolates from The Compassionate Kitchen. I think the pecan may have taken first place on my favourites list now, with the lemon ginger slice a very close second (photo taken by Arthur):
A slice of this lovely rainbow cake with rose frosting by Oh My Vegan (OMV) Bakery to share with the kids (the roses got a bit squished in my container):
For DeeW’s birthday I bought her this sweet coin purse from Animal Kind:
Not pictured are my tote bag from The Vegan Box, a bottle of Citrus Soya Japanese Sauce by SAORI (all the sauces are fantastic) and the salt and vinegar sea crisps from Sea Shanti (another fantastic product).
There were many more stall holders and food vendors and I apologise for not including them too, but it was difficult to photograph everything properly once the crowds came in. Thanks to everyone for letting me take photos! There are no photos of my lunch because I pretty much filled up on samples, though I did get the three steamed dumplings for $2 from the Loving Hut outlet. For dessert I got the apple raspberry ice cream from Fritz Gelato. Then ten minutes after I left WVD my stomach started growling and I was craving dosa.
Thanks also to the organisers, volunteers, stall holders, presenters, venue staff, the helpful security guy at the front gate, anyone involved with bringing another great World Vegan Day to Melbourne!
The big pie at the Melbourne Showgrounds. A vegan pie thanks!
Did you attend World Vegan Day today? What did you get? What did you eat?!
Oh wow! If I had any reservations about dusting off my Aussie passport and getting on a plane your world vegan day just changed that. Beautiful documentation. I could feel the warm breeze in the first band picture. Love the Inukshuk image on DeeW’s coin purse. Seaweed chips, yes please.
Thanks!!! I’m half tempted to have the purse for myself. And those seaweed chips, especially the crackling were brilliant.
Your photos are great. The order/labelling on some of them are a bit jumbled. The funniest one is where the photo of Phil Wollen is labelled as salami…. Made me chuckle on a vegan post.
oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hang on, I can’t find this Phil-salami reference? I’ve asked a few people to spot it but they can’t. What reader/program are you using?
I love those bags especially the yellow tote. It was a great day, I had a potato dosa and then too much dessert but those lemon slices from Compassionate Kitchen are amazing!
I want dosa now 🙁
Amazing photos, awesome blog post. It was a great day with so many amazing goodies to buy.
thank you! It would be great if we have World Vegan Day Weekend 😀
Great round up! I took hardly any photos yesterday, so when I get around to blogging about it I shall definitely be directing people here!
did you buy cat jewellery? 😛
I finally got to this annual big vegan day out! I’ve been intending to go for a few years but 2nd DD has a birthday that sort of clashes. Next year I hope to be a stall holder but I did not have my act into gear this year.
yay you made it there 😀 It would be great to see yet another new stall holder next year!
I went along with Sylvia en route to Geelong and it was a bit of a crazy visit – not really wise to try and browse stalls with a time limit on the parking and 5 year old in tow but interesting but overwhelming too. The crab cakes with Extreme Catering over the window are from Perfect Pebble and they were great with aioli. Seeing all your photos makes me see that I missed heaps – would have loved the seaweed snacks but hard to get through the crowds to see everything.
I had planned on bumping in to a few people, it was all “we’ll bump in to eachother for sure”. Nope! Thanks for letting me know the name of the business, I’ll go edit 🙂
What a wonderful day, I wish I could have gone. The weather looks perfect and all that food is amazing! I love reading about the vegan events you visit and your product reviews, you are like a roving vegan reporter!
the weather was great! Roving reporter is funny, because the main motivation is usually eating 😉
amazing pics, i went to the last Melbourne one but found it totally claustrophobic. Hopefully this one was better.
this year was much better because there were two big halls. The goods/services hall was really spaced out and never crowded (I was there the whole day) but the food hall did get pretty crowded but not as bad as last year.
Oh wow! So much amazing food! What a great day – and beautiful photos capturing it.
thanks! It was awesome!
You got lots of amazing photos. Oh my gosh, I would love to eat my way through that event. (You could spend a small fortune though.) And you came away with lots of fun goodies too!
I’ve been regretting not eating and buying more!
Wow Faye, what an awesome visual of World Vegan Day Melbourne! Awesome post 🙂
thank you! Still craving that dosa though 😉
That looks quite simply amazing. I would have come home from that with a wallet a lot lighter and the rest of me a lot heavier!
Days later and I’m still thinking about the stuff I didn’t buy. Gahhh!!!
H and I are almost weeping because we couldn’t get there. I wish I had Hermione’s time-turner so I could have been at my friend’s 50th in Geelong and also at WVD! I’d heard from a girl at work (I’m no longer the only vegan in the office!) that it was even bigger and better this year. Do you reckon there were more people than last year? I hope so. Your lovely pictures remind me of that often-asked question…What on earth can vegans eat??? 🙂
oooh yes I think it was bugger and better than last year! What a bummer you couldn’t go. There’s the Cruelty Free West Expo on Nov. 23rd in Caroline Springs and the Sea Shepherd Ocean Defence tour on the same day at Williamstown.
not sure if there were more people this year, the food hall was always crowded so maybe! The non-food hall was more spaced out.
Of all the days to have a hangover! Whyyyyyyyyyyy
I know! Where’s the justice?!!!
Wow – what an amazing celebration! Fabulous pictures.
thanks! Now I’m impatient for the next one 🙂