Hello everyone! I had the pleasure of attending the Montreal Vegan Festival. I was actually told that attendence has tripled since the event first started 5 years back! From this fact, one can draw the conclusion that more and more individuals are becoming curious about veganism and want to know/understand more about all of the wonderful benefits it has to offer. One can also ascertain that there has been an increase in people leading a plant-based lifestyle, for whom the festival is a great opportunity to see what new products, food items, etc. are currently out there!
Interesting data supporting this idea of an incline in plant-based diets comes from recent research conducted by Dalhousie University as conveyed by an article on ctvnews.ca, which asserts that “there are 2.3 million vegetarians in Canada, up from 900,000 15 years ago. Another 850,000 people consider themselves vegan. Those two numbers add up to 9.4 per cent of the Canadian population”.
More about the festival now… There were many new and not so new companies (of the beauty, shoe, apparel variety), as well as bakeries, food item producers, etc. selling/displaying their wonderful offerings. I remember 20 years ago there weren’t nearly as many options!
Speaking of bakeries at the festival… special shoutout to Audacieuse Vanille, a Montreal-based bakery from which I bought the BEST pumpkin muffin ever! And my husband couldn’t resist trying the banana bread with chocolate chips, which he says was divine.
Also, while at the festival, I discovered a new company that I truly believe to be my “coup de coeur,” or my newfound love. I plan on featuring it in an upcoming blog post! I’m not going into further detail right now, as I was only able to order some of their products online, as opposed to purchasing them at the festival (they had their complete line on display, however no stock to sell) and I’m 100% committed to ALWAYS testing items personally before writing about them. Stay tuned for that!
To conclude, in exiting the festival, I was left with this wonderful feeling that a collective interest in protecting animals and the environment is alive and growing here in Canada, which is great news!
Bye for now,
-Cristina
It is holiday season !, a time of gathering and often gift exchanging whether at a family holiday reunion, at the office or as a token of appreciation towards a teacher, a service provider or other.