5. Lokal Markets
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