Vegan Outings: Green Earth Day

Today was the second annual Green Earth Day festival in Brisbane coordinated Brisbane’s local vegan celb Leigh-Chantelle of Vivalavegan.  Held at the Albion Peace Centre the festival was a free, non-for-profit, community event to promote awareness on environmental issues; there were speakers, workshops, performances, stalls from activist groups and local eco stores and not to mention (the best part) FOOD! And aaaall vegan! Yey yey yey yey!

Unfortunately The Boy and I both had uni stuff to attend to this weekend so we could only hang around for about an hour but we got to have a look at the stalls, try out some food and attend the cooking demonstration by Sydney’s vegan cook and author Leigh Drew.  The demonstration was in an old hall which had chairs set up on either side and a table out the front for Ms Drew to do her thang, it was very intimate. She made two flavours of these melting moment type biscuits; chocolate and passionfruit. They were AMAZING, so amazing; we got to taste test two, however, I would have had so many more if I could have.  I would really have liked to attend some of the other demonstrations and talks; there  was quite an impressive list of speakers including ex-Democrats Senator & Brisbane Greens candidate Andrew Bartlett and Mr Universe 2009 Billy Simmonds! 

We also tried out some Funky Pies; they were quite popular so by the time we got there they were sold out of a few flavours but I had the ‘G’day Satay’ which has pumpkin, kumera and potatoes in satay sauce, yum!  The Boy had the ‘Chilli Non-Carne’ which has mushroom nuggets, red kidney beans, capsicum and tomato salsa; I found that the mushroom nuggets were a bit too meat-like in texture for my hyper-sensitive vegan mouth, but aside from that they were both very tasty and served on very cool recycled cardboard plates!

The Smoothie Cycle was also there. It’s a smoothie stall where they get you to pedal on a stationary bike which is hooked up to a blender and you blend your own smoothie. I was too intimidated (read: vain) to have a go myself, but they have a lovely, energised menu so I’m kind of regretting not trying one now.   It was also a very family friendly affair; they had a ‘kid zone’ where there was constant kid friendly entertainment. I even saw some kids running around with free plants; The Boy and I were v. jealous – I want free plants!

All in all it was a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday! I know Leigh-Chantel had been working super hard with her volunteers to get it altogether; I’ve been following her tweets and she is one busy, motivated lady! I think I will volunteer to help out next year; it would be great to be part of the movement!  Hopefully the festival has been successful in its awareness raising goals!