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London Vegan Festival 2011
This year we saw a welcome return of the London Vegan Festival. To celebrate its return we made an extra effort with the contest & got some top notch prizes, but before we get to the contest, let's begin at the beginning of the day.
First off we have to thanks Elaine & Greg from the Animal Protection Agency who supplied the dumbbells & brought both those & carried some of the prizes along with their own stuff, so thanks to them & make sure you check them out & give them your support!
Coach Gary & Liz from the APA pose for the
obligatory stall picture :-)
Liz tucks into some hemp protein while Gary
smiles!
As it turns out the tubes weren't working, so we had to bus to the venue which made for an exciting adventure finding bus stops to get to the event, but once there we were soon ready for action.
As usual we were quite busy with vegans & those interested in lowering or stopping there intake of animal products while still keeping at a high level in their sport, we met an old Mr England competitor who was looking to get back into contest shape on a vegan diet amongst many other interested athletes, dieters & people into general health & fitness.
We have to thank Greg from the APA for supplying the weights for the contest. The weights for the women was as advertised at 8Kg, but the men had a 'treat' as they had a 17K weight to lift, not the 16Kg we advertised (lucky guys!). I'd also like to note that I put the amount of reps counted by the judges. Many people did many more reps, but Coach Gary was being strict & any rep that didn't hit his high standards weren't counted, so if anyone noticed that people did higher reps at the event remember we only count the reps Gary allowed!
First of all we had four main sponsors for the event:
Viridian vitamins sells great supplements
Fitness Superstore – Bodybuilding strength equipment, largest range in the UK with 7 showrooms nationwide!
Good Hemp Nutrition protein powder is grown & produced in the UK
V-pure
Algae-based DHA/EPA pill
These four helped us with major prizes for the events & help really develop some buzz for the contest, so special thanks for them for getting onboard & supporting our events! If you want training equipment, vitamins, or protein then consider checking these guys out as I personally asked them because I do use their products & thought they were worth having as sponsors & in my personal opinion are worth checking out if you are after the sort of product they supply.
On the day we also did our usual job of trundling around the event & getting donations from the stalls so that everyone got a prize. Again we have Maz to thank for all the hard work of going stall to stall & collecting all the goodies. Here are the other sponsors of the day & again, if you need anything they offer try them out first as they help us keep the contest exciting & are willing to support us, so it's only fair we return the favour & support them!
Plamil - Makers of all things chocolate, mayo & other goodies. A completely vegan company
Sheese - Everything vegan cheesey are what make these guys the best
Lakeside Ethical treats - A vast selection of choccies, sweets & other goodies all from ethical sources
Honesty - One of the best Vegan cosmetics suppliers about
Animal Aid - Top animal charity helping fight for the rights of animals - they sell goodies on their website too!
Vegan Society - Helping the world become a more vegan-friendly place
Shea Alchemy - Cosmetics made from Shea butter (shea is a nut)
Soap nuts - great for washing you, your clothes & even your hair. Yes they are nuts & yes they do make soap! I intend to try these out & see how well they work! A nut that's soap, now that's cool!!!
Hempish - everything hemp. Clothes, bags, bodycare, shoes, seeds etc
Vegan Store - Online place to buy EVERYTHING vegan
Viva! - charity fighting for animals
Bourgois Boheme - clothes & footwear for the fashionable vegan
Clearspring - Yummy European & Japanese foods
Moo free - as the name says choccie without the cow juice
Hunt Saboteurs Association - Saving animals using non-violent direct action
ALF supporters group - supporting prisoners who save animals from the people who torture them for profit
(I hope that's everyone, but if I've missed you out email me & I'll add you to the list of sponsors as soon as I can)
Maz got the event off to a great start really getting the crowd behind the women as they ground out those last few reps & often went well beyond what they thought they capable of! With 8Kg of mass bearing down on them it was time to let battle begin....
Catherine started things off with a fantastic 28 reps
Adnana did an astonishing 14 reps
Silva got a massive 29 reps
Liz got a great 18 reps
Emma got a fab 19 reps
So in third place we had Emma who got one Viridian product
In second we had Catherine who got one Viridian product & bottle of V-pure pills
In first place we had Silva who won a stability ball from fitness superstore, a 1Kg tub of chocolate hemp protein powder & 2 Viridian products
This years male event had some new blood & some old favourites entering so with Maz driving the crowd into a frenzy it was time to find out who was the best of best when it came to men pressing! So with 17Kg in their hands it was time to go....
Ralph got things going with a decent 9 reps
Shane got a commendable 8 reps
Oak tied Ralph with 9 reps
Michael brought the pain with 27 reps
Alex did an awesome 25 reps
Savate Champion James cranked out 15 reps
Joe matched James' 15 reps
Not only did Matt get 25 at a very light bodyweight...but...
...he wowed the crowd with display of vegan muscle
who says a vegan can't get that 'hollywood' style body!
Finally came push-up champion Dave who did a great 10 reps
In joint second place we had Alex & Matt who between them got some Viridian products each & some v-pure tablets
In first place we had Michael who got a pull-up bar from fitness superstore, a 1Kg tub of strawberry hemp protein & 2 Viridian products
Then we all had to vacate the hall for the next talk so we popped downstairs & get some photos with some of our sponsors posters...
Maz is shocked by a coconut poster!
Who is the man in the cap? Wait for it, he appears later!
Matt loses his top again, this time by the stall - he is clumsy
with his clothes :-)
Now we explain the mysterious capped man you saw earlier! Although our contests are primarily aimed at highlighting strength & fitness to the vegan community we do try to include anyone interested as much as we possibly can so even though this young man is a meat eater we let him play with our weights & even gave him a book about plant based nutrition with a promise that if he gave a plant based diet a go between now & Christmas then he'd be more than welcome to enter the Xmas push-up contest we hold at the Animal Aid Christmas Without Cruelty event, so keep an eye out & see if he makes it to that show!
Sadly even the best days come to an end, so we finally had to pack up & head for home. I think we had quite a few people coming to the festival that were either new to a plant based diet or interested in making the change, so I think Alison & Rob did an excellent job putting the event together & keeping it running smoothly despite the tube line closing for the day, so thanks to them for all their efforts!
Lastly do go check out any of the sponsors of our contests as they are helping support our community, so supporting them can only help us grow even stronger. I'll add their details underneath so you can just pop below & click on any that might be of interest.
Viridian vitamins sells great supplements
Fitness Superstore – Bodybuilding strength equipment, largest range in the UK with 7 showrooms nationwide!
Good Hemp Nutrition protein powder is grown & produced in the UK
V-pure
Algae-based DHA/EPA pill
Plamil - Makers of all things chocolate, mayo & other goodies. A completely vegan company
Sheese - Everything vegan cheesey are what make these guys the best
Lakeside Ethical treats - A vast selection of choccies, sweets & other goodies all from ethical sources
Honesty - One of the best Vegan cosmetics suppliers about
Animal Aid - Top animal charity helping fight for the rights of animals (sells goodies on their website too!
Vegan Society - Helping the world become a more vegan-friendly place
Shea Alchemy - Cosmetics made from Shea butter (shea is a nut)
Soap nuts - great for washing you, your clothes & even your hair. Yes they are nuts & yes they do make soap! I intend to try these out & see how well they work! A nut that's soap, now that's cool!!!
Hempish - everything hemp. Clothes, bags, bodycare, shoes, seeds etc
Vegan Store - Online place to buy EVERYTHING vegan
Viva! - charity fighting for animals
Bourgois Boheme - clothes & footwear for the fashionable vegan
Clearspring - Yummy European & Japanese foods
Moo free - as the name says choccie without the cow juice
Hunt Saboteurs Association - Saving animals using non-violent direct action
ALF supporters group - supporting prisoners who save animals from the people who torture them for profit