Serious face bit: You are welcome to use my photos but please provide credit and link back to my blog. Thank you! Aaaand snap back to happy face with jazz hands because this is a happy post!
World Vegan Day Melbourne! The number one event on many a vegan’s calendar here. We had the added fortune of the nearby train line being opened for the event which was pretty big– a good sign of the times changing I say!
There were new food stalls, some launching on the day and old favourites too. This year’s WVD also had a dedicated Fitness Zone and fashion show which were pretty exciting– I love seeing how WVD grows every year! There was an art exhibition, kids space and rides, food demonstrations, presentations, music and entertainment, speed dating, not-for-profit stalls and of course products/services stalls.
Because this is really photo heavy, I won’t include a lot of text. I’ll let the pictures do the talking wherever possible!
It was impossible to photograph everything and I do apologise to those I’ve left out. There were also photos that didn’t turn out well (or I couldn’t crop out unfortunate facial expressions– as someone who is always snapped in the background of photos with a severe constipated look and often accompanying body position, I will look out for you) It was pretty tricky running from one spot to another to take pics, especially when there were stalls, people and scheduled events I wanted to check out.
Please leave a comment below (I don’t have to publish it if you prefer, just mention it in the comment) or contact me on faye[at]veganopoulous[dot][com] if there is anything you would like to bring to my attention about the photos!
I had a fabulous time and really enjoyed the sense of community. Thank you to the WVD crew for allowing me to go in early and for all your work setting up the event! And a big thank you to everyone involved with stalls, demos, presentations, volunteering, everything!
I hope you enjoy this look at World Vegan Day in Melbourne, 2015. Please feel free to share this blog post on social media– Melbourne’s World Vegan Day is a winner and I’d love the world to see how we do it here 😀
xxxx
Faye
FOOD GLORIOUS AMAZING WONDERFUL FOOD (WHERE WE LOOK AT PHOTOS AND IMMEDIATELY REGRET NOT EATING MORE)
Looking at these, yes, I regret not eating more. Below we have pies from Half Pint Vegan Dairy; pre-toasted toasties from Toastie Temple, featuring cheese from Damona Divine Cow Non-Dairy Cheese and handmade artisan bread from Little Earth Bakery; the most delicious samosas from Krishna On Barkly Indian Restaurant (located in Footscray); hot dogs and fries from Lord of the Fries:

Woking Amazing (top three photos, below) had their launch at WVD. I’ve been waiting to try a vegan dim sim for 3.5 years now (i.e. the time I’ve been vegan). I finally got my wish and am happy to advise that you go stuff your face with these. They were excellent. Also shown are the beautifully colourful Vegilicious grilled meals (this grill smelled sooo good); self-serve chili sauce on top of your meal from Fina’s 2 Vegan Restaurant in Fitzroy; mixed plate by Dosa Joy; serving up wraps and fries at Soy Division:

Mantra Lounge serving up delicious food; Rice and Dice‘s vegan meals (dumplings in the back); awesome potato masala dosa by Dosa Joy; lovely fresh BLT rolls from Half Pint Vegan Dairy; another awesome plate from Lavana Wholefoods:

We have so much creative talent here in Melbourne when it comes to vegan food and baking is certainly no exception! Von’s Vegan Bake House had so many wonderful treats today like a baklava cake (top left and bottom right, below); black sesame matcha layer cake with white chocolate frosting (top right); coconut sponge with caramel frosting:

The Compassionate Kitchen‘s cakes and slices are a favourite with my family. Today I finally got to try their raw ferrero cake, shown below with their iced tea (which came in super handy because it got pretty stuffy in the pavillion at some points). Delicious as always! Their banana bread is ace too:

Check out the hours of work that have gone in to these creations by Oh My Vegan Bakery. Just beautifully done:

Monika from Vegan Cakes By Monika had what I think would have been the most awesome WVD job: making cakes for the kids zone! Here’s one of her sweet creations. Photo credit to Chris Thomas:
The Decadent Desserts Company make my favourite fudge (as in, I buy some for others but ending up eating it on the tram ride home). You can also find them at market stalls such as the Queen Vic; Half Pint Vegan Dairy launched some new fab flavours at WVD and I’m looking forward to trying them:

Ice cream and more good food! More evidence we are pretty spoiled here in Melbourne. Below we have Zebra Dream Ice Cream (I still can’t work out which is my favourite flavour); apple cider and iced teas from Those Girls; fresh flavoured popcorn from Organic Popcorn; your icecream reward from ever-popular Fritz Gelato after queuing a while:

Pana Chocolate‘s beautiful cakes and taste testing; chocolate apples from Merry Cupcakes; chocolate and Buckinis from Loving Earth:

Cupcakes and yoyos from V Series in Kew:

Bake Mixes are all organic, vegan and you simply add your own liquid ingredients; Raw 4 The People raw snacks and bread alternatives; most excellent cheeses from AVS Organic Foods; kale chips, cookies, granola and other treats from Highwood Health Retreat; loads of treats sold by Vegan Perfection; dried fruits and nuts from Happy Fruit (you can also find Happy Fruit at farmers markets); flavoured plant milk sampling from Rebel Kitchen Australia; Bruce Cost Ginger Ale; Kombucha!; Pura Veda samples from Conscious Foods:

Elizabeth and Issy from Nestar and Miss Sweetie with their hand panned chocolates; the action at Coconut Hub; organic cold pressed juices from Babou Juice; Chooh La La back for another WVD; Red Balloon Candy Artisans and their hand crafted sweets:

VEGAN FASHION AND BEAUTY
This year’s WVD Melbourne included a fashion show, including fitness wear by Vegan Fitness Model Crissi Carvalho:

I don’t know the names of the designers featured below sorry, but there were so many beautiful clothes, hats and shoes:


Adorn Cosmetics and their lovely staff had a stall today and seemed quite busy (I love their concealer); soaps from The Australian Natural Soap Company; Ere Perez also make beautiful cruelty free natural cosmetics; Vegan Tree Owl create skincare and beauty products like lip balms, soaps and perfume; Melbourne made Bella Belle Nail Couture polishes:

More creative talent on display with gorgeous hand made jewellery and accessories! Shown below are Project Triceratops; reincarting rubbish with WozWaste; earrings and sweet animal figures sold by Futuro Vega*Pop; jewellery, wallets, bags and more at Jubly-Umph:

Backpacks from BeeKeeper Parade; the Vegan Style stall included many gorgeous bags and shoes; Matt & Nat bags at the Orange Oranges stall; beautiful prints of animals on purses and wallets at the Animal Kind stall; droolworthy Scarlett Vegan Bags; stunning cork bags and necklaces at the Alteration Atelier stall (sorry, I have no additional info on them):

Vegan footballs and more from Vegan Wares; The Vegan Box‘s new tasty donut shopping bag; hand painted brooches for Vegetarian Victoria by Heidi & Gretel; Edgar’s Mission magnets; more Vegan Style shoes:

THE FITNESS ZONE
Vegan body building legends! Billy Simmonds of Prana ON gave a great presentation on veganism in the mainstream. He was also loudly cheered on by a large crowd during his fitness challenge! Robert Cheeke was part of the Vegan Transformations Panel and could also be found at his stall with vegan apparel and his fantastic book Shred It!

The Vegan Transformations Panel: Crissi Carvalho from Vegan Fitness Model; Simone Collins from the Evolved Generation team and Amanda Riddles of A Very Small Vegan Kitchen; body weight calisthenics by Luke Tan and DC Cordtz; the crowd in the fitness zone and the plank challenge contestants:

FOOD DEMOS
I didn’t get to see many of the food demos unfortunately! Shown below are Luke Tan and Emilie Tan, with Lucy Stegley from Evolved Generation and Raw Events Australia; Yoko from Shoku Iku in Northcote; Dinesh from Mantra Lounge with Zac Bird. Zac launched his new Nicecreamery at WVD:

MUSIC
There was a full schedule for the music entertainment and I made sure to go and watch Abolicion:


Krishool smiled a lot through his set!

I only caught the last bit of JAIID‘s set– there was so much going on at WVD!

I’ll finish up with a bunch of images with scenes of World Vegan Day.





COOL BAGS AND STUFF

And I’ll finish with awarding The Inaugural Veganopoulous Best Item Of Clothing Award to the person shown below in the mega brilliant watermelon top. There’s no prize, and I didn’t actually plan on such a contest until I saw this top but it’s so cool that first place was awarded instantly and no correspondence was entered in to, my relatives were not eligible to enter, etc etc:

I hope you enjoyed this look back at Melbourne’s World Vegan Day for 2015. If you’re not from Melbourne, come and visit during this time of year 😀
Happy World Vegan day, world!