Our tickets were already booked in March and finely our wait is over. Last saturday, we headed over to the Vegetarian Food Festival (Vegetarfestivalen) in Oslo. Oh my, what a nice surprise when we arrived at the Kubaparken … a line-up of people as far as we could see. What a difference with the previous years. It could be due to the sunny weather of course, or the fact that so many more people have chosen to opt for a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. What a lovely sight it was … 4000+ people with a like minded vision, young and old, from all walks of life … needless to say that brought a big smile to our face 🙂
A lot of the restaurants/cafes that we usually go to, were at the festival. We got our lunch from Tunco. It’s so exciting to see small businesses who carry vegan/vegetarian food grow and get more popular. We had some nice cold lemonade from a little stand (between Våffelmannen and Baked Potato stand).
The girls and guy from Oatly offered free (!!!) ice cream, iced coffee, capp-oat-ccino and chocolate drinks. They are such a cool and fun brand. Needless to say this was the most popular stand on the festival 😉 We always have at least one of their products at home. Personally, I always have my coffee with their iKaffe (oat-milk).
Being vegan, or rather opting for a plant based lifestyle is a choice, a conscious choice
So much has changed over the course of just a few years. The feeling and perseverance of people wanting to contribute to a better, sustainable future was tangible. A lot more companies have taken it to heart to develop vegetarian/vegan options: we saw a whole range of (new) food companies, vegetable farmers, animal welfare, natural produced items, locally produced products, etc.
Our choice goes much further than just becoming a vegan. We prefer to call it a plant based lifestyle. Therefore we focus on three – even important – themes, which let us look at it from a holistic point of view:
- the wellbeing and thriving of all animals
- our own health – body, mind and spirit
- the health and future for the environment
Going one step further is therefore cutting out all wheats and sugar. Sadly a lot of the processed vegan options contain wheat. Even though we do not have celiac disease a lot of people go undiagnosed for non-celiac wheat sensitivity or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Read more in this article: non-celiac wheat sensitivity
We also opted for a wonderful (and much needed) acupressure massage at the festival. The people from Vitality Centre did an amazing job. These Qi practitioners use a Korean-inspired acupressure and sound technique that cleanses and recharges the body, calms the mind & brightens the spirit. Thank you Pradnya and Marco 🙂
One thing though … maybe next year the festival could arrange for people to pay with cryptocurrencies. This also is part of a sustainable future for all of us. The people from Norway Bitcoin and Blockchain Association will be more than happy to help you out 🙂 Every company that accepts crypto-payments is offered to be listed on the NBBF webpage.
See you in 2019 Vegetarfestivalen!
Text from createyourteam.net