I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Irish vegan festival, Dublin VegFest which, fittingly, was held on World Vegan Day, November 1st, 2015. I think it’s fair to say that the huge success of Dublin VegFest exceeded everyone’s expectations, and great credit is due to the organisers who did a marvellous job.
I gave a short presentation at the festival, entitled “How We Grow as Animal Loving Animal Users,” which was based on a snippet of my sociological research work. Essentially, the talk was about the important and powerful processes of socialisation. We are born and brought up in societies that are deeply speciesist, based on hierarchies, oppressive power relations, and inequalities based on gender, “race,” and several other interlinked variables.
I keep my talk down to about 15 minutes because this was the format the organiser’s favoured. I agree with them that speakers tend to speak for too long and do not give enough time for questions and observations from the floor.
For me, Dublin VegFest was especially noteworthy because it was totally uncontaminated with the corporate sector of the animal advocacy movement in the shape of the large, and largely welfarist, national groups. Dublin VegFest was all about the grassroots, and we in the grassroots showed without a shadow of a doubt that we can organise and put on a vegan festival as good, and as promising, as any.
[Thankyou to Eszter Vagvok for her camera work]
I gave a short presentation at the festival, entitled “How We Grow as Animal Loving Animal Users,” which was based on a snippet of my sociological research work. Essentially, the talk was about the important and powerful processes of socialisation. We are born and brought up in societies that are deeply speciesist, based on hierarchies, oppressive power relations, and inequalities based on gender, “race,” and several other interlinked variables.
I keep my talk down to about 15 minutes because this was the format the organiser’s favoured. I agree with them that speakers tend to speak for too long and do not give enough time for questions and observations from the floor.
For me, Dublin VegFest was especially noteworthy because it was totally uncontaminated with the corporate sector of the animal advocacy movement in the shape of the large, and largely welfarist, national groups. Dublin VegFest was all about the grassroots, and we in the grassroots showed without a shadow of a doubt that we can organise and put on a vegan festival as good, and as promising, as any.
[Thankyou to Eszter Vagvok for her camera work]
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