Our Day Out at VegfestUK Brighton

On Saturday 11 March 2017 my son Lucas and I attended a vegan festival at the Brighton Centre. It was a very packed two-day event with over 5,200 people visiting on Saturday and over 4,200 visiting on Sunday.

There were numerous nutritional experts and star guests presented by Veggie Vision TV’s Karin Ridgers. All the sessions from this new area were recorded and will be available to view at the end of March on VegfestUK’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/vegfestuktv).

Apparently this event, according to the VegfestUK’s facebook page, has been attended by some famous people such as actor Peter Egan, TV presenter Wendy Turner-Webster, actress Carol Royle, film director Otto Brockway, model Victoria Eisermann, Lush Cosmetics ethical director Hilary Jones, strongman Patrik Baboumian, cyclist Christine Vardaros, triathletes Kate Strong and Dave Sheahan, plus many others.

As we were volunteers for this event (distributing flyers), we were privileged to enter the building a bit earlier, before it opened to the general public. It also meant we didn’t have to queue!

As we were among the first visitors there, we were able to have a good browse around the stalls before the crowds arrived.

We then made our way to the children’s area on the first floor, where my son Lucas tested a few of the children’s activities.

We had an early lunch. It was a difficult choice for us as there were so many tempting food stalls… but Lucas chose for both of us – Vegusto hot dogs – the same as last year! Lucas and I were also lucky enough to be one of the VegfestUK Brighton Vegusto hamper winners. 🙂 After our hot dogs, we had a sweet treat – mango and raspberry Italian ice cream from Boho Gelato. That was lovely as well.

Later, after the yummy but sugary ice cream, I could not resist the delights on the fully raw cake stall. In my opinion, this was the best stall as the food was sugar-free, white flour free and used only natural and wholesome ingredients which were displayed on handmade ceramic plates. I was told that the ceramic plates were made by the seller’s grandfather. You can check out her artisan desserts here: www.elspethskitchen.com

After a little shopping – wonderful organic toiletries, organic raw coconut oil, more Vegusto cheeses and sausages and green superfood blends from Amazing Grass – and a lot of good deals, we made our way over to Captain James Tea Cook’s mini-workshops for children.

At the first workshop Lucas learned how to make and flip over a pancake, using not WHITE flour but BROWN flour instead. He gave all the children his ‘Five Principles of Optimal Health’ card and it was good to hear him emphasise the benefits of his principles. Simple, but very important principles that are unfortunately overlooked by the majority of people.

Captain James Tea Cook’s 5 principles of optimal health:

1. Eat the rainbow way – 5 vegetables a day
2. Eat natural wholefoods – NOT processed half-foods
3. Eat fats for your brain – NOT fats that cause pain
4. Drink water and tea – NOT sugary wee
5. Get out in the sun – sing, dance and run

Check out those healthy and fresh looking table cloths – aren’t they beautiful?

The next stop was making your own strawberry and banana smoothie powered by bicycle – how creative. 😊

Then, same as last year, we visited Ritchie Rosson, a magician and family entertainer (www.balloonsmagicfun.com). He was very funny, kind and lovely to all the children. We parents found him very entertaining as well. 😊  Ritchie even made my son a balloon alien. Lucas adored him and was talking about his magics for days afterwards. 🙂

Finally our last stop was again at Captain James’ mini-workshop. 😊This time the children were making chocolate oat balls.

At 5 pm we started to make our way home – tired, with full bellies and heavy bags of shopping, but very happy as we had spent a wonderful day at VegfestUK Brighton.😊

Below is the last photo from our journey home on Brighton’s streets.

The VegfestUK Brighton will return on 24 & 25 March 2018 at the same venue and we will be visiting again as we do every year since we moved to the south coast.