So yesterday was the Montreal Vegan Festival. Needless to say, I was really excited and had spent last week planning which conferences I wanted to go to, which stands I really wanted to go spend my money at, and what cooking demos I wanted to watch. I had planned to go with my friend La Végé d’à Côté, and we were just really excited about this!
And then reality caught up with me.
As a teacher, there are several week-ends in the school year when you just want to curl up in your bed and disappear until report cards are far, far away. This week-end was one of those week-end. After correcting my last projects for the term until 12.30am on Friday, I still had to compile all the grades and finish everything so that all my 192 students would have grades in their report card to fuss about. So, I was late for the Vegan Fest which was a bummer because as I was quick-walking my way to the Marché Bonsecours, I was thinking that I had already missed the one cooking demo that I was really excited about: The Frangipane- Ginger Pie with Véronique Saint-Pierre (Rose Madeleine).
And then I got there… as 10 000 other people did.
At first I was a little bit overwhelmed by the crowd, but then it got me really excited and positive. Isn’t it incredible that so many people are willing to wait in line, fight for hemp bars, and spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon indoors buying vegan pastries and cakes? Yuh-yuh!
In the end, I couldn’t meet with my friend because she was in the conference room, and after waiting for an hour outside to get in, I really didn’t want to wait again to get in there. So I went around the stands two times, enjoyed a really nice almond roll from Rose Madeleine’s bakery and bought a few things. Alright, I bought a lot of stuff, but I’m very excited to review them and enjoy them! I was also a little bit overwhelmed by the crowd and did not stay for the demos.
So, overall, this was a fun afternoon, but not what I had planned. Next year, I really hope this totally free event (amazing!) will be in a different more open place so that the lines are not such an issue. I’m really happy with my book finds and spices. So what’s your city’s vegan fest like?
My Lighthearted Kitchen 
I have these two cookbooks too! 🙂 My boyfriend made quite a few of Rose Madeleines deserts… Amazing everytime. We haven’t explore Afro-vegan much yet. Few recipes we made were really good and different from what we usually eat. I’d say you made a great choice buying these!
Amazing! Can’t wait to try these two outs! What would you recommend I try out first? 🙂
Lovely kitty 😉
that’s great to see so much interest in veganism. We’ve been to two vegan festivals in the last couple of weeks (belgium and the netherlands, reports on my blog) and the interest was also huge! Hurray! 😀
yay! it’s quite amazing to see how quickly it gains popularity 🙂
I love the Afro Vegan cookbook.
Which recipe should I try out first? 🙂
I lived in Montreal for a year and absolutely loved it! Beautiful place! I stopped in Crudessence for chocolate smoothies as often as possible. In Seattle, we have Vegfest. It’s also a huge fun event with lots of goodies. 🙂
I would love to see what Seattle’s VegFest is like! 🙂
And you’re right, Crudessence have awesome chocolate smoothies!