Paris Vegan Day, 2010

Yesterday, G and I attended Paris Vegan Day, the annual celebration of veganism in the City of Light. It was totally packed, which meant it was next to impossible to take any decent pictures of all the fantastic events and people, but let me attempt to paint you a blurry, dark portrait of the day anyway.

Our downstairs neighbor decided to throw herself a very loud birthday party on Saturday night, which meant that on Sunday we needed to sleep in, and showed up to PVD a little late. By the time we got there, everything was well underway, and there were swarms of people everywhere.

The whole event was held at the Bellevilloise complex in the 20th, which has many different rooms and floors–each one of which was packed out.

In the downstairs main room, there were ongoing cooking demonstrations

(there’s the Urban Vegan, showing off her kitchen skills), as well as a lofted cafe.

Oh, and a bar.

Upstairs there were dozens of booths devoted to specialty vegan foods, vegan cosmetics, and vegan clothing. There was also a stage set up for visiting speakers, product demonstrations, and a fashion show.

All of the clothing and accessories looked very cool.

Handmade Jewelry

Colorful Bags

Handmade Clothing

A bag I would snatch up in a minute if I were in the market for one

Vegan Shoes

Since veganism isn’t just about cool accessories, there were many other booths devoted to cosmetics and and food.

Check out that stack of carrots!

I love Lush–all their soaps look like candy

The Vegusto table, with every kind of vegan meat your little heart could desire. And cheese, of course.

The Gentle Gourmet Cafe table

The Un Monde Vegan table, filled with treats

Ice Cream!

A million different kinds of cream cheese

The Gyro stand, which also gave out finger foods.

And, of course, Joshua Katcher ran the fashion show.

It wouldn’t really be a vegan festival unless everyone was stuffing themselves silly with delicious food. At the cafe near the cooking demos, there were loads of beautiful baked goods,

and there had to be a cupcake tree.

Up in the cafe, you could also get quiche slices, kebabs, baguette sandwiches, and pasta–but it was so crowded that those stands were difficult to photograph.

Anyhow, here’s some of the stuff G and I ended up chowing down on (although I didn’t get a picture of our delicious kebabs–we had to eat them standing up, which made picture-taking difficult).

A coffee-cardamom cupcake

Sweet Crepes

A beautiful and delicious loaf of bread–we actually saved this for later

A chocolate chip waffle

It was kind of like a second Thanksgiving, but more sugar-oriented.

To make the day extra special, I got to help Terry Hope Romero (of the PPK) make an empanada!

Now, Graham has many, many skills. Unfortunately, taking pictures isn’t one of them.

No, Ms. Romero didn’t personally ask me to help her, but once I volunteered and hit the stage, it was clear to all present that I was an empanada-making master.

Ms. Romero shows off my empanada

Or that I was a dancing baby dinosaur; at least, that’s what the above picture suggests.

So, all in all, a pretty great day. By the time we got home, we were a little worn out from working our way through crowds–but even though I’m not a fan of mobs of people, I was very happy to see so many participate.

Events like this one always bring up some mixed feelings for me. On the one hand, I think that these sorts of festivals are a very good thing–they introduce many people to some delicious food while also offering some thought-provoking ideas. But on the other hand, I think we should all be wary of merely trying to encourage a different kind of over-the-top consumerism. That is, you don’t want to merely tell someone that being a vegan plops them into a new and exciting demographic of consumers. But, with that said, I think that events like Paris Vegan Day can do a great deal of good by illustrating that the adoption of a vegan lifestyle need not relegate one to living the life of a lonely ascetic.