WNY VegFest 2016!

LONG POST AHEAD from WNY VegFest 2016!

This was the 3rd annual WNY VegFest in Buffalo, NY.  It was at a different location this year...Delaware Park.  Each year my sister and I go and make it a Sisters Day!  My sister is NOT veg but likes to try all of the veggie stuff!  This year my parents came a long!  This is a photo of me, my dad, and sister!  We made the Buffalo News (Website)!  I'm originally from WNY and it's always nice to go back and visit!  Afterwards we attended my cousins daughters graduation party!

For the 3rd year in a row I was able to meet up with the Vegan Zombie guys!  I didn't think they were going to be there this year but they were able to go at the last minute!  Jon and Chris are always AWESOME!  I bought one of their hoodies this year!  The first year I bought a cookbook and a t-shirt and last year I bought another t-shirt of theirs!

Chris also gave me one of their rubber bracelets!  You can see the one I am talking about on Chris's left arm.

The VegFest t-shirt I was wear in these photo's was from last years VegFest.  I'm hoping to attend the Erie VegFest in September if all works out, too!

There was a new juice place this year!  Squeeze Juicery and their juices are AWESOME!  Since my parents have been getting into juicing when we are able I thought they would get a kick out of these!  For the most part they did!  I will say that Squeeze kept selling out of them so they MUST have been good, eh!?  We went a little crazy and bought several.  Of course everything that we bought that day we shared so we could all sample everything!

First up we have the 'We Got The Beet' with Beet, Carrot, Lemon, Ginger, and Apple.  Then the 'Espresso Love' and that had Cashews, Dates, Espresso, Cacao, Vanilla, and Sea Salt.  I don't think the Sea Salt was necessary - neither did my parents or sister.  We've never been a 'salt family'.

We ended up buying TWO of the Tiny Dancer you see here on the left.  'Tiny Dancer' had Strawberry, Kiwi, Cucumber, Pear, and Raspberry.  'Good Day Sunshine' was the other one and that had Turmeric, Orange, Lemon, Carrot, Cucumber, Celery, Pineapple, and Ginger.

My mom and sister liked the Tiny Dancer the best and my dad liked the Good Day Sunshine the best.  I liked all 4 of them for different reasons.

I will have to make a trip to one of their two locations SOON!  They are in Elmwood and Buffalo.  Check out their full menu HERE.

For a couple of years I have been hearing The Vegan Zombie guys talk about Tamerlaine Farm Animal Sanctuary.  So when I heard they were going to be at WNY VegFest this year I had to stop by.  I'm pretty sure they were there last year, too, because I tried their hot sauces.  This year they were selling the hot sauces, their hummus (which my parents bought), and their totes and t-shirts.  I bought one of their totes!

I was able to meet the co-founders and chatted with Peter for quite a while.  SUPER nice people!

They sold out of a lot of their hot sauces and hummus by the time we left the event which was only a couple hours in.  The proceeds benefit the animals at the sanctuary.

Last year I passed up the vegan ice cream so this year it was on my list of priorities that is for sure!  My mom and I got 2 servings and shared with my dad and sister.  Since we didn't want it in a cone we opted for the cup!  They served them in temperature changing cups that had the VegFest logo on it!  How cool is that!?

I was in my glory at this event because everything at this event is vegan!  It's nice not having to pick apart and read labels for once!

There were some vendors that I missed this year for one reason or another but there were new vendors that I enjoyed seeing, too!

There was at least 1 new food cart this year, too!

You could buy the whole menu for $25.  As tempting as that was - we didn't do it.  My Dad opted for their Bangarang Taco option, tho!

He seemed to really like them!  They had a crispy coated sweet potato, slaw, and a few other things in there topped with a strong ginger sauce.

My sister grabbed a Quinoa Bowl.  I remember her and I had those last year, too!  She really liked them - so much so - she got another one this year.

Mom chose the Veg Noodle Bowl.  It was a large serving for the $7 price tag.

This year it was on my list of priorities to visit the Indian Food Area and I was able to!!!

The establishment was called Dosa Place and it featured South Indian Cuisine.  I really like India Food but I wanted to try something I had not had a lot of experience with.  I opted for the Bonda and the Vadai.  The Bonda is a Potato Fried Ball with onion and spices.  It was great!  The Vadai was basically a savory lentil donut of sorts.  That was terrific, too!

I was surprised that my mom liked the Vadai, actually.  My Dad liked everything he tried that day!

My mom and I visited the Love Beets booth and tried all of their beet samples.  There was a BBQ that was nice - subtle.  My mom really liked the White Balsamic beets.  My mom LOVES beets!  Her and I do - my sister and dad don't care for them generally.

Last photo is the one chat we attended.  It was a group of families that rescued dogs from the Korean Meat Market.  Their stories were heart wrenching!


There are so many other experiences that we had that day!  And so much more food, too!  I remember my parents getting some Vega and Garden of Life Samples and my dad making smoothies the next morning!  I will be giving him some of my protein powder supply soon!  I'm thrilled he enjoyed them!  My dad also bought some Sunflower Seed Butter!  Wheatberry Bake Shop from Snyder, NY, was there and was selling a Vegan Pizza and it was WONDERFUL.  The owner was so nice!  We also grabbed a Lemon Basil infused water from them which gave my mom the idea to start doing that at home with all of the basil she has growing!  It was another great year at WNY VegFest!  I'm so excited that my parents came with us this year!  I hope to attend the VegFest in Erie next month, too!  Fingers crossed it all works out!

WNY VegFest 2014

I'm so excited!  I FINALLY went to a Veg Fest!  YESTERDAY!  YAY!  I wasn't sure until the last minute if I was going to go or not and my sister ended up going with me!  I cannot thank her enough!  I had some much fun!  We were only there for a few hours and we drove about 2 hours to get there and 2 hours back but we MADE it!  We had other obligations or we probably would have stayed longer!  Since I took so many pictures I decided to blog about it throughout this week.  In addition I have a VERY busy week ahead of me for work, too, so I will blogging about that later in the week, too!  The WNY VegFest took place at Delaware Park near Hoyt Lake off of Lincoln Parkway in Buffalo.  The venue was a good one!

The weather wasn't wonderful - we've had a lot of rain this summer - but it held off for the most part.  It could have been a LOT worse!  heck...it could have poured the whole time - but thankfully it didn't! 

My sister and I were REALLY early which worked out REALLY well because we found a kick-ass parking spot!  When we left there weren't ANY to be found for a dozen blocks or more!  I was reading they were hoping for between 2,000 and 2,500 people but I bet that's how many vehicles I saw at one point!!!  So I think it has a HUGE success!  One of the many surroundings at the VegFest Location was the Delaware Park Rose Garden.  I took a few photos of that.

I think I got my photo taken more in the last 24 hours than I have in the past year!  I'm usually the one behind the camera not the one in front of it so it was a strange experience.  You know I will post the pics, here, tho...the good, the bad, even the ugly! haha.

Here's one of me near the fountain in the rose garden.  Even tho it was gloomy...the temperature was 'just right' it seemed.  Not too hot and not too cold.

This is the building that was in the middle of it all.  A very cool place!  It's Marcy Casino at Delaware Park.  Over the next several days you will be seeing a lot of photos of this building.  It's one of their historic places.  This is the front of it.  The back is something special, too!  Right along the water. 

There were vendors all around the building...in the nooks and crannies, inside and outside, along the water...everywhere!

This is behind the rose garden.  Bands played here.  We didn't stay to see them play but the first one was setting up while we were there.  They also had a 5K Tofurky Trot Race taking place all around the grounds.  Since I'm not a runner I didn't participate but they did have a LOT of runners.  There were some real characters, too! LOL - I know at least 2 hockey players participated...Andrew Peters...former Buffalo Sabre and George Laraque.  George was also a speaker.  He was on the Penguins, Canadiens, and other teams, too!

 This is one of the sides of the building.  You can see some of the vendors wrapped around on the middle level.  The set up was really neat!  We made our rounds thru the vendors about 6 times.  Because we were so early the vendors kept setting up as we were walking around and around.  You can't really see much of the stone work on the building until you get around back but it was pretty cool.  Almost castle meets late 1800's type look and feel.

When you go around back and look to the left you see this...a stairway up to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery which I want to go back and visit some day in the near future!  If you look straight out - or in this case - turn to your right - you will see the water as well as more of the park and the bridge.  There is a lot to see and do and neat places to walk.  It's been YEARS since I had been in this section of Buffalo, to be honest.


This is a shot of the water, bridge, and walkway.  This was taken before most of the vendor started setting up near the water!  It filled up pretty fast. 

Eventho it was pretty gloomy - I LOVE that the GREEN really POPPED!  I don't think I got a photo of it - but there were some random canoes in the middle of this waterway, too.

There were a lot of little historical markers like this one to tell you more about your surroundings.  This one told you about Hoyt Lake.

Delaware Park was designed as part of a coordinated system of parks, parkways, and traffic circles in the city by Frederick Law Olmsted. Constructed in 1871 and covering 350 acres, Delaware Park is the centerpiece of the Buffalo, New York parks system.

It is currently on the National Register of Historic Places and is maintained by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy.

Outside the front doors of the Parkside Lodge was one of Delaware Park's most magnificent features, a Quarry Garden. The city of Buffalo quarried large amounts of stone from this location in Delaware Park for most of the structures in the parks as well as others around the city. In laying out Delaware Park Olmsted transformed this working quarry into a beautiful quarry garden landscape complete with reflective pools, stone arch bridges and a number of trees and shrubs to accent the natural stone walls. Unfortunately, when the Scajaquada Expressway was built, some of the landfill was dumped here and the garden was lost. The Conservancy is committed to uncovering this secret garden.  There is a great deal of info on these parks HERE.  The more I read the more I really want to revisit them.

On our way out we saw this 'young' Abe Lincoln Statue and thought it was pretty neat.  I did take a few photos of more of the surroundings 'out back' behind the Rose Garden Stage.  They have Shakespeare in the Park many nights throughout the summer but for some reason blogger won't let me insert them into this post.

So before I 'blow up' my blog I think I will stop there but I will be trying to catch up on more photo heavy posts because there will be a lot this week!  I still have to blog about the FOOD at VegFest and my other personal FAVORITE...meeting the Vegan Zombie Crew!  So be sure to check back soon!!!!!