On this day, the 10th International Vegan Festival was opened at Skagen, the northern tip of Denmark. The organisers were The Danish Vegan Association in cooperation with The Nordic Vegan Union and Vegans International.
The site of the festival was Diget, The Folk High School at Skagen. The facilities there are extensive: living quarters, a dining room, TV room, computer room, library, assembly rooms, and a sports hall. The assembly room in which we have our lectures is formed as a pyramid.
The festival participants are mainly from the UK and Denmark, but there are also some from the USA, Japan, Finland, Germany, Italy, and France, as well as us 9 from Sweden.
On the first day we had clear sunshine. The day started with the presentation of the participants and the vegan societies of the participating countries. Alex Bourke, Vice-Chairman of The Vegan Society (UK), made a historical retrospect and talked about some pioneers within the vegan movement.
The site of the Festival, Diget (The Dike) is near the sea, just a 600 m walk along a path down to the sand dunes. There the beach stretches out for kilometers in both directions. We are the only people within sight. The water is warm and clean. We manage to go swimming several times during the afternoon and before nightfall. The evening is completed with tea and fruitcake in communion. For me, having participated in five other Vegan Festivals and numerous vegetarian congresses, it's tremendous to meet old friends and familiar faces. From the Swedish Vegan Society, there is Pia Lernborg, Monica Engström, and I.
Ulla Troëng
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Day 2 started with yoga under the direction of the English yoga teacher Margaret Gunn-King. This took place in the sports hall. It is well equipped, including yoga mats. After an hour's yoga, we are ready for breakfast. Here we find big bowls with fresh fruit, soya milk, ricemilk, muesli, porridge, oat flakes, sliced hazelnuts, soaked dried fruits, fruit juices, bread, sandwich fixings, herb tea, ordinary black tea, and coffee.
After breakfast, Swedish Ilene Stensson held a lecture on living food. She had picked edible leaves from the surroundings, which she presented, and she explained, how easy it is to enrich one's diet with chlorophyl-rich drinks. One just mixes the leaves one has picked with some banana and a bit of fruit juice. The leaves can be from wild nettles, dandelions, goosefoots, or from domestic cabbage and salad. She also told about her pilgrimage in Northern Spain and all the animals that fared badly there.
Lunch was salads, cooked legumes, various bean patés, patties, potato salad with sweet peas and fresh basil, lasagna with various root vegetables, and freshly baked bread with herbs.
After lunch, english Alex Bourke held a lecture and showed the film "Animal Right". Alex works for The Vegan Society and has produced a series of guide books, i.a. Vegan Paris and Vegan London. He is also the longstanding editor of Vegans International.
We then take a long walk along the beach and swim in the sea. Supper follows, consisting of rice, chickpea stew, salads, nuts, and raw vegetables in bowls. The dessert is a cream made of rice milk mixed with fresh strawberries and overlaid with chopped nuts and roasted oatflakes. Many of the participants drink wine with the meal. This is a strange sight for us Swedes, who are used to vegetarians and vegans not drinking alcoholic drinks.
Immediately after supper we are all taken by a bus to the birthplace of the Danish philosopher Martinus, who was also a vegetarian. It is a cozy stone house consisting of a room with a kitchen directly linked to the barn. Here Martinus grew up together with eleven other children. We get a guided tour by a couple who take care of the house. From there we drive to the North Sea to enjoy the sunset. The beach stretches out immensely in both directions and is so wide that cars can drive on it. However, we only meet two riders on horses. It's a great sight to watch the horses gallop off on the beach in the sunset. We drink tea and eat munchy cookies made of dried fruits and nuts rolled in shredded coconut. The place we're resting at is The Tversted Lake, a park with paths and a big dam with water lilies.
During the bus drive and stops we manage to talk with several of the festival participants. There is the English festival cook Tony Bishop-Weston, who has received numerous prizes as cook and author of several vegan cook books. Stephen Walsh is an author of a book on vegan nutrition. Finnish Merja Salo represents the Finnish Vegan Association. French Stephane Hennion has cycled all the way from France. I have met him at several other vegan festivals. Italian Franco Tedaidi's great interest is "biodance", which seems to be similar to releasing dance. Japanese Hiroko Tsuchiya is studying English in England. She tells us that she has abandoned her traditional Japanese vegan diet, which consisted of i.a. miso soup, raw rice and tofu, to the benefit of living food.
We are replete with impressions and inspiration when returning to our room for the night. I take an extra fruit cake with me to enjoy while summarising the day.
Ulla Troëng
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