New to the veg community in our city? Lets re-cap.  The Worcester VegFest is a free festival that brings the local community together to celebrate vegetarianism– an animal-friendly, environmentally sustainable, and healthy lifestyle. Our event features socially responsible businesses, inspiring national and local speakers, musicians, and plenty of complimentary samples of vegan food and products. The event will have also have educational exhibits, family-friendly activities, fund raising raffles and free parking.

Worcester’s newest and biggest vegetarian event was a huge success last year with 2,000+ attendees! We’ve been paying special attention to your feedback and we’re hoping to make this one even better than the last! New this year: In addition to free food samples, we’re  planning on having local restaurants selling veg-friendly meals so you can choose to buy a larger plate of tasty food as well!

Want to get involved? We are still looking for volunteers who want to attend our weekly Tuesday VegFest meetings and help with recruiting speakers and vendors, contacting local businesses, arranging the music, and more. We will also be holding separate volunteer meetings starting in February for those that want to put together posters/banners, leaflets and other important promotional tasks. We’ll be updating you soon with details when those  meet-ups begin!

What was your favorite thing about last years Vegfest? Comment below!

Here’s a quick overview of the photos and video from the VegFest:

WCCA
Mauro from WCCA put together a quick video overview of the VegFest. It will be running this weekend. It’s great! Check it out!

508 Podcast
Erica Getto, a VegFest organizer, also appeared on the 508 podcast to talk about how the VegFest was a triumph.

What did you think of the VegFest?
Take this quick survey to tell us what we can do better next time around. It should only take a few minutes.

Where: Worcester State Student Center, 486 Chandler Street, Worcester
When: Saturday, April 17, noon-5pm
Free parking, free admission.
Attire: Casual

Pick up a copy of Worcester Magazine today. This week they ran a kick-ass article about the upcoming VegFest, called “VegFest: A Cornucopia of Compassion“.

From WorcesterMagazine.com:

Hail seitan; fans of tofu, rejoice. VegWorcester, the voice of the vegetarian community in the city, is sponsoring their first VegFest. The free event will celebrate all things ‘veg’ and will feature socially responsible exhibitors, four national level speakers, performances by Meledeego and Midi and the Modern Dance, and lots of free vegan samples (yum!).

…

Printable flyers featuring VegFest’s mascot Cornucopia Boy (a nod to Turtle Boy) are available on VegWorcester’s web site (vegworcester.com). The grassroots campaign is working—so far VegFest’s Facebook page has over three hundred confirmed guests

…

Test your nutritional knowledge with Dr. Michael Greger, Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States and founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. “There are both risks and benefits of eating a plant-based diet,” says Dr. Greger. “I will lay out the latest research in the field so folks can make the most informed decisions about their diets.”

John Sanbonmatsu, Associate Professor of Philosophy at WPI and author of “The Postmodern Prince: Critical Theory, Left Strategy, and the Making of a New Political Subject” will discuss the connection of animal rights and other social movements. Sanbonmatsu will connect veganism to broader social justice movements.

“As advocates, we should focus our attention on the suffering farm animals and the promotion of vegan eating,” says Jon Camp, Director of Vegan Outreach. Camp will discuss the importance of getting involved in advocacy including Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College program, a positive and friendly approach to informing the public by leafleting at colleges and high schools.

Erica Meier, Executive Director of Compassion Over Killing (and Clark Alum) will discuss the national animal rights campaigns. The DC-based non-profit organization focuses on preventing the abuse of animals on factory farms and promotes vegetarian eating as a way to build a kinder world for both human and nonhumans.

(Read the full article.)

You can download the flyers mentioned in the article by going here: http://vegworcester.com/festival/#flyers

See you this Saturday! Remember to RSVP to the facebook event and to invite your friends.

Schedule

Noon- Quick Intro to VegFest
12:05 – Music: Midi and the Modern Dance
12:30 – Jon Camp, Vegan Outreach
1:10pm – Music: Midi and the Modern Dance
1:35pm -  Erica Meier, Compassion Over Killing
2:15pm – Michael Greger, Vegan Nutrition
3pm – John Sanbonmatu, WPI
4pm – Music: Melodeego
4:50pm – Closing

Want to help with a last push for this? Invite your facebook friends to the event.

Also, next week week they’ll be running a great article on the event. Sweet!

The VegFest poster in three sizes (Thanks Rae for designing this.)

• Legal sized poster (8.5″x14″)
• Letter sized poster (8.5″x11″)
• Quarter-page handout flyers (4 per letter page)

Alternative Poster & Flyers

Turtleboy is the symbol of Worcester, so cornicopia-boy is the symbol of the 2010 VegFest. (Thanks to Greg Opperman for designing this.)

• Letter sized poster (8.5″x11″)
• Quarter-page handout flyers (4 per letter page)

Also be sure to invite your friends to the VegFest Facebook event. It only takes a few minutes and it is one of the best ways to promote the VegFest.

Yesterday a group of four VegWorcester volunteers spent a couple hours at Worcester State College giving out info about factory farming and encouraging students to come out to the Worcester VegFest. There are some photos on the VegWorcester flickr page.

Here’s a report-back from Manda:

Manda, Erica, Mike and Drew were at Worcester State College today getting the word out about the upcoming VegFest scheduled for April 17th in the WSC  Student Center! We put up 15 VegFest posters on campus bulletins and gave 30 posters to residence life to be posted in the dorms this week. Along with VegFest flyers, we handed out Vegan Outreach booklets about factory farming and compassion for animals. We passed out around 150 booklets and flyers to students during class changes and outside of the Student  Center before lunch time.

One student leaving class from the Science & Technology building told us she is not vegetarian but curious about it. She had already responded to the VegFest Facebook invite and would be attending along with a friend who is already vegan. We were happy to know that the word is getting out!  Another student simply walked the rest of the way to class with his head down, closely examining the Vegan Outreach booklet, surely impacted by the disturbing images of factory farming conditions. A few people who we gave flyers to said they weren’t vegetarian, but we assured them that VegFest is open to everyone as a great way to start learning more about how to help end cruelty to animals and of course to check out the variety of delicious veg food available locally!

We’re hoping that some of the Worcester State College students we met on campus today will come check out the amazing speakers, free food, fun and music on April 17th!

Next VegFest work-party is on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at Kaylee’s house (23 Barber Ave, Worcester). Interested in volunteering for the VegFest? Email Kaylee@VegWorcester.com. Even if you can’t make it out to a volunteer meeting, you can spend an hour putting up VegFest posters around town or handing out flyers. Email Kaylee so she can hook you up with flyers.

Want to help us get ready for the Worcester VegFest? There is a volunteer work-party at 5:30pm on Wednesday Feb 24 at Kaylee’s house: 23 Barber Ave, Worcester (map).

The VegFest is happening on Saturday, April 17 at Worcester State College, but we’re having regular volunteer meetings in the lead up to the event. Come out to today’s volunteer work-party and help us make banners and signs to promote the festival. If you have paints or paintbrushes, bring them along. We have fabric for banners and some poster-board. (RSVP to the facebook event.)

It is a little tricky to find Kaylee’s house, but we’ll put out a sign so you know where to go. You can park right on Barber Ave.

Want to help out, but can’t make it to the volunteer work-party? Email Kaylee@VegWorcester.com or call Drew 315-834-2655.