Sunday, April 26, 2009

Los Angeles Veggie Pride Parade



Today was the first Veggie Pride Parade ever held in Los Angeles. The event was coordinated by the animal sanctuary Animal Acres and included a 5k walk through Culver City/Venice, vendors, music, keynote speakers, and a ton of enthusiastic people.

I arrived on the scene to find a slew of people dressed as different animals (the gamut ran from a giraffe to a penguin to Disney characters), fruits and veggies, and even a block of tofu. That's not how I roll, but I was clad for the cause in a rockin' Secret Society of Vegans t-shirt.

The walk got on its way with chants of "What do we want? A vegan world! When do we want it? Now!" and "Go green! Be vegan! Save the world!" Creative and bold posters peppered crowd, as well. The number of cars that drove by honking in support was astounding. There was even a little "keeping the peace" police presence.

I talked to a number of people I'd not normally encounter face-to-face; people like the associate editor of Vegetarian Times, who patiently listened as I voiced my desire for the magazine to have more vegan representation, the couple behind Vegetarians in Paradise, the manager of the restaurant Seed, and Rory Freedman of the Skinny Bitch series (she was also a keynote speaker at the event).

Of course, I was also able to spend time with fantastic people I already knew, including the amazing Melisser and Strummer of The Urban Housewife and Strummer Calling, Kim from C'est la V, the couple behind Happy Cow, many of my true life friends who are immensely important to me (you know who you are), and some people who I hope will become new friends.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and nothing short of a perfect celebration of veganism.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! You got your post up and running! It was so great to see you again! The parade was so much fun & the people were uber nice (even the police). For me the highlight was seeing Tofu walking around. Now that was awesome! :0)
I can't wait until next year. Maybe I can be a cupcake? Thanks for posting this up! I'm still working on mine b/c I have too many pictures to go through (and I have to upload a video). Hope to see you soon! <3

Anonymous said...

Sounds like u had a great time ma belle!!

Vegan_Noodle said...

Sounds like a great time!! Maybe one day there will be a veggie pride parade in Houston..... sigh, a girl can dream, can't she?

trina said...

I'm so glad the event was a success!

quarrygirl said...

that sounds like it was FUN! i am kinda sad i wasn't there to see the person dressed like a block of tofu.

HUGE LOL. wacky VEGANS!

Hannah said...

Sigh, sounds like a wonderful time... I really wish I could have been there!

lisafrg98 said...

I missed out on the parade but thoroughly enjoyed the festivities @ Culver Events. Totally awesome bands, speakers, food, etc, etc. I really liked the walking tofu, very simple & creative costume! :) LOL...I was wondering if quarrygirl was anywhere in the crowd. ;)

Ricki said...

Sounds like such a great event! And the people you spoke with are like the who's who of vegan celebs!

Anonymous said...

I have a SOS shirt too, and it's one of my favourites!
It's hard to believe that this is just the first Veggie Pride in LA - but how cool that it happened, and even les flics sont venus! Wow! Cela veut dire qu'il y avait du monde alors!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

It was great to see you there, even though I lost you for a bit! What a crazy day!

Anonymous said...

WHATTTTTTTT?! WE HAVE THE SAME BIRTHDAY!!!

and that parade sounds uber fun. JEALOUS!

DJ Karma said...

I just got through reading about it on veggie vixen's blog- it sounded like a great event!

Jenn Shagrin said...

I will come pair your socks any day :)

Thank you! The parade sounds like so much fun. I wish I weren't such a lazy bum on Sundays. Ever since I left the west-side (well, I guess it's the deep west side), I've yet to venture back.

KZ said...

Looks like a perfect day! Can't wait for NY's!