Brighton Vegan Fayre 2009

This event started for me on Friday 20th March getting there to help organise the campaigns room & get the VBB stall put up & also help out here & there getting artists settled in, collecting flyers from around town for distributing & having a chance to catch up with the Yaoh crew who ran the event.

The day of the fayre I was running a little late (as usual!) & just managed to beat the first customers to the stall! Luckily Robbie, Michael & Coach Gary were already on station for the first shift. After a quick chat Robbie & I were off around the stall gathering prizes for the main event of the day, the hammer curl contest. For this contest we had the idea of gathering enough prizes so every entrant gets something

I'd like to take a couple of lines & thanks everyone who sponsored the event. I'll list them below & I hope that after reading this everyone checkout these companies as they are supporting the cause & really helped the event with some fantastic prizes that all the contestants loved!

So here they are & once you've read the rest of this report pop back to here & see what they've got to offer:

(These are in no particular order just how I pulled their flyers out of the bag)

(please note that not all the above companies are completely vegan, so check with them before you buy any products)

Before the hammer curl contest there was the talk by Robbie & me. First off I have to mention the sheer size of the Brighton Centre. Finding your way around is in itself a mission. Thanks to Tim & the Yaoh crew for sign posting the centre throughout. A big extra thanks has to go to Kay & Michael for taking the time to video the talk. We had a great time talking about everything from protein comparisons to training advice & how to plan your routine.

Finally it was time for the event of the day the hammer curl contest & as we were to find out yet another Coach Gary controversy.

Magda Started things off with 2 reps

Freya got an impressive 20 reps

Rachel got a respectable 6 reps

Marta got a great 12 reps

Vanessa got a very cool 30 reps

Liz got an amazing 43 reps

Pru got a gargantuan 48 reps

Kay got an awesome 22 reps

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The men's contest

Next up came the men & with several past contest winners the contest looked to be tight. Having to handle 12Kg for reps was going to test these guys.

Gera got a great 44 reps

Michael got a great 34 reps

Oak hammered out 132 reps

Steve got 36 (it was also his first time doing this move & he used, in my view the best form of the event)

Vince got 27 (he had over 70 reps not counted!)

Ralph got 89 reps

Finally came Dave to hit an impressive 219 before he was stopped

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The results

Well, really everyone was a winner as they all received one or more prizes on the day, but the reps count let nothing to doubt in the female contest Pru had won a great victory & in the males it was the all-powerful Dave Arnold who once again beat all-comers to grab victory.

We let everyone choose their own prizes & most had more than one by the end of the event.

Pru collecting her bear for wining the female contest
Dave goes straight for the protein as the men's winner
2nd place place Liz (who competed with a bad back!) get's a £10 gift voucher
2nd place Oak stirs up grumblings amongst several of the ladies who wanted the squirrel
3rd place Ralph went straight for the raw choccies
Kay had some yummy choccies

Gera was looking forward to Sunday morning & getting a chance to eat his new cereal

Freya went for the cider (we guessed as much :-)

Steve grappled some chocolate spread

Marta snatched up the sheese

Michael got the hemp seeds

Rachel got the oil

Vince was so happy about his prize he did a jig :-)

Not sure what Magda got (I'm pretty sure Robbie wasn't a prize :-)

As we still had prizes our winner Pru got another prize of a fine wallet

Dave got some ace socks made of bamboo

Liz got a beanies gift voucher

Oak was back (flaunting his squirrel) & grabbed some hemp

Kay got some bathy stuff

Rachel & Freya pop back to grab a couple of choice gifts

The final few prizes disappear

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The Gary controversy

Yet again there was rumbling from the undergrowth about the strictness of Coach Gary's judging. There did appear to be excessive low back involvement & dumbbell swing in some of the competitors during the event & it will be something we'll be looking at avoiding in future contests. The contest is supposed to be fun, but even so we'll try to improve the standards of the event as we know you prefer a more stringent judging criteria than was employed at this event.

The day was really amazing with many people saying it was the best vegan fayre they'd been to, with music, speakers, bags of room in the huge venue & lots to keep the kids occupied. We certainly had a ball & are looking forward to the rest of the vegan events around the UK. Big thanks to Timbo & whole Yaoh crew for taking a huge gamble hiring such a great venue, we really appreciate all the effort you put in to these events every year, so go check them out.

The next day

In the aftermath of the fayre I woke up pretty groggy from the long day, but new today was going to be something different because Robbie was coming to train chest, shoulders & triceps, but before that it was time to run, so collecting Rachel on the way off we went went (making sure we made it out before the scheduled race that blocked the seafront with 100's of joggers & made running a nightmare)

Rachel helps packing up the fayre by becoming 'de management'

After a brisk 40 minutes or so along the seafront we were back & as Rachel retreated to finish her dissertation I got some food down me & prepared for the onslaught that Robbie was bringing

The training

From my point of view it was lucky Robbie had a nagging shoulder injury as it meant the weights were kept light enough that I could keep up. That & the long few days setting up & doing the fayre had lowered our usual stamina a bit, but Robbie was still determined to train at his blistering pace, cracking out set after set at a speed that would take most trainees breathes away!

Here's a few pics of our adventures in the dungeon

Robbie also look the time to show check out my form on some of the DC style 'Extreme stretches'. A form of isometric weighted stretch that can only be described as 'painful'. Here's me doing a chest stretch using dumbbells, this is done at the end of the chest section of the workout

Then it was downing some protein, & off to Bombay aloo for an afternoon of 'all you can eat' (I bet they'd wished they'd shut early after we'd finished there :-)

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Finally

Again we've got to thank Yaoh foods for putting on the fayre & keeping the idea of veganism in everyone's minds & we'd also like to thank the other sponsors of the event , so as you've read this far I'll add the list of sponsors again & if you could go check them out & if anything catches your eye buy from them as they're supporting the vegan community, so it's only fair you support them.

Funky little thing (organic baby clothes)

Earth Friendly Products (household cleaning products)

Flavours of Spain (Galician wines & artisan food)

Majik Blankit (skin care)

Dairy Free (chocolate)

Jethro's (Marmalades, sauces & dressings)

Love cow (ethical clothing)

BAM (bamboo clothing)

Hempower (Hemp power human bio-fuel)

Lush (cosmetics)

Plamil (chocolate, & many other vegan foods)

Essential Trading (food co-op)